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THE 



NORTH AMERICAN 



BEE-KEEPERS' GUIDE, 



PRACTICAL APIABIAN, 
BJLTTLS ©ROUND, TIPPECANOE CO., iXD. 



V. ay 

LAFAYETTE 
BEE STEAM FEINTING HOUSE, 

J. L. COX & BRO., PKIXTERS. 

JL875. 






itcTMl Accor;Ung t.> Act of Congress in tlse year ]v7r>, 

in- J. ^L HICKS, 
Till- OiHci- (if till,' Lilirarian of CoB£;ress at Wflskin.iitoii. 



PREFACE . 

In presenting this little treatise on the 
Honey Bee, it is not my intention to en- 
ter into a long story abont what our 
fore- fathers did, or how they kept bees 
and eut out honey by the barrel or tub 
ful; but what I aim at Avill be to give 
the reader something that is practical and 
up with the times. For be assured that 
the science of Apiculture has and is mak- 
ing fast progress, and many valuable les- 
S3ns have and will be learned, about the 
proper management of the little honey 
bee; knowing as I well do that there 
lias been many books both great and 
small, w^ritten on the management and 
culture of the honey bee. I feel some- 
what timid about trying to add one more 
work upon the subject. Yet feeling as- 
sured that there has been and is yet, 
many false ideas abroad in the land, con- 
cerning the breeding and managemeiil 
of bees, I deem it a matter of sufficient 
importance to unravel at least some of 
the mysteries of their ^vork, (in the hive) 
which is uiost usually so constructed in 



skajje tkat tke Hovicie would !^€sapc.eiy ev- 
er think of looking further than at tke 
place where the bees enter their Hive for 
farther instruction. 

I trust, therefore, that in my elPorts to 
plac^ tkiu Book befoi'^a reading public^ 
and especially the Bee keepers of Korth 
America^ it will be the means of d(*in^ 
at least some good, having had near 
thirty years experience in Bee keeping. 

I therefore Respectfully dexlicate this 
little volume to all lovers of the honev 
bee. 

J. M. HICK8, 

Battle Ground, 
Tippecanoe County, Ind. 



INTKODUCTION 



THIS Book, on Be^ Culture h not die- 
signed to be so over-loaded \yith sur- 
plus matter or technical terms as to tax 
the young beginners mlndjand make Bee 
ctdture an endless and a laborious stu- 
rdy. But on the contrary I design it as a 
book of importance to those who have 
U€\eF had th^ oppoi'tunity of knowing by 
practical experience what there is in the 
management of the (so much neglected) 
Honey Bee; as well % mstj be able to 
pla-ee before those who have had many 
years expe*rience in the past system of 
handling and raising bees by what they 
call hmi, (for which I truly feel sorr}^*) 
as I am well convinced from my own 
experience that luck has nothing to do 
with ti Correct System of Bee Culture, 



and only rests upon a proper knowl- 
edge of nature's laws ffovernins; the ever 
busy little honey bee^ whicli has been 
created for man's good; but oli! how sad- 
ly neglected and let go to ruin; after 
Avhich man was so blind as not to know 
the true cause and called it his bad luck. 
What would we now^ in this enlightened 
age think of a man who had a horse in 
a stable and otherwise would wholly neg- 
lect him ? You would say at once, the 
man Avould have l>ad luck Avith his horse. 
Just so with his boeSj he has owned per- 
haps for years in the old fashioned round 
or square box liivcs, w^hieh he has to- 
tally neglected until they finally died 
and were lost, Nature's laws not even 
thought of once by the man and then he 
lays it all to his bad luel^and actually 
tells you that he has such poor luck 
with bees that he cannot raise them. 
Eeader, how^ many horses do you- think 
such treatment as this man gave his bees 
would raise? and how fat would his hogs 
and sheep be if they received such treat- 
ment as the bees do, of those who pro- 
nounce bee keeping all in luck and let 

them go at loose ends, wdth Nature's 

was entirely neglected. 



But Avhile we have spoken Qf those 
who have thus acted very unkindly to- 
ward the little honey bee^and finally gave 
up in despair, let us see well to it that 
we,under the ney>^ dispensation of things 
pertaining to the welfare and prosperity 
of the bee, make no mistakes and ruin 
our stock, which if properly oared for 
and attended to in the right time will 
pay a larger income than any other in- 
vestment man can make. Here let me 
f? ly it is no uncommon thing 
to frequently hear of Bee-keepers 
realizing from a few stands of bees sev- 
en to ten hundred per cent.. I also will 
say that my humble opinion is, the only 
sure road t6 success for the Aparian is 
to use a Movable frame 'Hive of some 
kind, which must be a hive up with the 
times, so you can handle bees with ease 
and pleasure. This of course will be a 
matter for you to decide, to some extent 
in your own mind, from the &ct, that 
cost as well as the facilities for handling 
bees depend very much upon the con- 
struction of your hive. I have tried 
several^ different hives of the movable 
frames^as patented heretofore, among 



wkicli I am better pleased with the re 
suits of the Hiaks B^e Hive thaa an j 
I have as vet tried. 

Reader, be yoa wh^ vou nxa/, let me 
impress upon your mijid the im|>ortauee 
of a strict adhereoce to the natuiul laws 
governing the ffiuiSt iada-strious iaseicl 
that Gbd has given for the good o£ Hian, 
As well I d-esfte that you study the las- 
sons herein laid down for your j^raltical 
GperatioHB, which if followed will lea<,l 
you to saccesfs and save many eoloaie^ 
of boes, tvhich have been heretofore lost 
for want of a proper* system of manage- 
ment. Yerv Truh% 

' J. M. HICKS. 



THl NORTH AMERICAN 

See £eef)ef^ (^tiide, 



-^o- 



CHAPTEK I. 




The Hatural History and Bescrip- 
tion of the Honey Be^. 

THE Hoaey B«e is said to have exis- 
ted from the earliest dawn of erea=^ 
tion. Be this as it may, we i^ad fn 
Holy -Nvrit, of Bees a^nd Honey both be- 
ing round in the carcass of a Ifen (Judges 
14th ehaptei% S vers^,) It is said that 
the Createp gave to Adam the privilege 



of naming all living creatures, both of 
the animal and insect kingdom, among 
which he must have given the name of 
the Honey Bee; which has been a fore- 
runner of Civilization and was no doubt 
brought to this continent by the puritan 
fathers, which has existed ever since 
among us. It is said that in parts of 
Europe the culture of the honey bee is 
oerried on with great j^rofit, there are as 
many as nine hundred colonies to the 
square mile. A Colony of Bees usually 
contains from ten to eighty 
thousand and in a perfect state, consisting 
of three kinds; 1st the queen or female, 
the mother of the whole hive. She lays 
the eggs which liatch, both workers and 
drones, (the lazy fathers) of the swarm 
or hive. 

The workers are female in their sex, 
though not fully developed, tlierefore 
they are the honey gatherers and Avax 
workers as well as nurse and take care 
of the young bees. In a word they do 
all the labor in and out of the hive, as 
well they defend themselves from all in- 
trusions and make war upon their eu- 
emies.' 




Broiies are Larger than the Work- 
er Bees 

and are the male Bees of the stock or 
swarm; they are more clumsy ,their heads 
and trunks are covered ^vith a fusz or 
sort of hairy coat, their wings are larger 
than the workers and when they fly the 
sound is very different from the other bees. 
They have no cavities on their legs, con- 
sequently cannot carry pollen, they can- 
not sting, having nothing of the sort to 
defend themselves w^ith; they do no labor 
about the hive, and are only useful to 
meet the young queens in the swarming 
season^ after which, the workers expel 
them from the hive, killing them by 
stinging without mercy, which is awe 
death and thus ends their existence. 

More About the Worker Bee. 
I here wish to say something Itirther 



about . the vv^orker bees nursing tlieir 
young. 

I have watched with great care for 
hours at a time/ in my Observatory 
Hick^s Bee Hive and have invariably 
found the young bees becoming nurses 
as fast as they hatched out^ thereby re- 
lieving the older bees from the duties in 
the hive, which it seems they were pleas- 
ed to have the privelege of doing, and 
giving place to the young bees, and from 
a careful as well many and repeated ob- 
servations I have made T am fully pur- 
suacled in my ov/n mind that the young 
w^orker w^hen first hatched out, enters 
from that moment upon its duties, just 
as the apprentice who commences to 
learn a trade a]id thus goes on up, step 
by step, unto perfection; from the young 
nurse bee to that of a wax worker and 
then launches out in the open air; delv- 
ing iijto each fiower of the field and for- 
est, for the sweet nectar to carry home 
where peace, harmony and wisdom 
dwell. The worker bee is not so lars^e 
as the drone, but is of a size between 
the drone and the queen, and are more 
active both in and out of the hive, rom 



tlie fact tiiey gather all the honey and 
pollen^ or bee bread^ which is food for the 
young bees, which after they once enter 
upon the duties as honey, pollen and pro- 
polis or glue gatherers; they only live 
about forty or fifty days which is the av- 
erao-e life of a worker bee. 




Size and Shape of ftueens. 

The queen is of a slender shape and 
anuch longer than the drone or worker,*, 
and as I before stated she lays- all the' 
eggs Avhich hatch the bees, she is usually^' 
of a brigliter color than the worker or* 
drone, her wrings appear to be shorter 
than the worker bee's wings, but this isr 
owing to the fact her body is much long- 
er and the wings do not- cover her so com- 
])letely as the wings do the other bees,she 
alwtiys seems to be busy moving about 
on the combs except when in the act of 



laj-iiig eggs, wliicli she is capable of per- 
foi^ming at the rate of two to three thou- 
eaiid per clay. 

Age of ftiieens not Certain. 

Althoiip:h it is equally true that a 
queen will live in many instances to be 
four or five years old and perform all the 
functions of the mother of a colony; but 
If the workers discover that she is about 
to become barren, they will at 
oiace make preparation to supercede 
her, and rear another Queen, in due time. 
Keader, I could go on and write page up- 
on page, in connection with this subject 
of the honey bee, but as I promised in 
the outset, it was not my intention to 
over-load your minds w^ith surplus mat- 
ter, I will therefore in conclusion say to 
you, go to your hives and there learn 
lessons of wisdom and harmony which 
€lwell therein, and lias from the earliest 
cb^wn of creation. 

A Test of ftueens Laying Eggs. 

In my recent observations in my ob- 
servatory hive I timed a fine italian 
queen while in the act of laying, and she 
laid* seven eggs per minute, which was 



at tlic rate of -four hundred and twenty 
per hour, this of course she could mi 
pcrforni very long at a time, but I am 
well satisfied that a good prolific and' 
healthy queen can lay at least three thou- 
sand eg^o's in twenty-four hours, in the 
proper season of the year, if the nurse or 
worker bees perform their duty in wait- 
ing on her by feeding and keeping up 
her strength and vigor which is a duty 
they seem to perform with great pleasure 
and promptness while she is in the act of 
laying^. 

Do ftneens Sting. 

She also has a sting which she uses 
only in dispatching other rival queens; 
and it is said often killing the young 
embryo queens in their cells which I 
doubt. 

It seems to be a trait of character iii 
'Spleen bees, to never use their sting ex- 
•'Cept on a rival queeen, at least if so I 
'have never known or heard of an in- 
istance yet, as they only seem to have an 
^antipathy for other queens, and have 
been known to meet each other in mor- 
tal combat. It usually takes about fif- 
teen to sixteen days to hatch out a fully 



' developed queen in a good strong 
colony of bees and about twenty-one 
»■ days to liatcli a worker bee from l^ie 
^' eggj the drones require about twenty- 
four days to become fully developed and 
' katcli out^ tlie above time as specified 
- depends very much upon the condition 
of the colony of bees^ v/hich if strong- 
■ Avill often shorten the time a few days 
^ especially the royal queens Avhich I have 
"' Icnown to hatch out in twelve days from 
• the time the workers commence the 

Construction of Eoyal Cells. 

Queen Cells are cells which resemble a 
peanut so much on the side of the combs 
and is usually constructed so as to hang 
nearly perpendicular, (they are much 
larger than any of the other cells in the 
comb ) which causes the queen to bo 

_ developed with her head downward, arid 
allow the organs of reproduction to 
be fully developed, the queen cell i? 
sometimes built around the egg, and at 

,, other times the egg is carried by the 
workers and placed in the cell and foyal 
jelly is also placed in the cell with 
the Q^g, which helps with that of the 



9 



cell to change its nature from that of a 
worker to that of a royal queen^her royal- 
ty passes about three days in the egg^ 
five days a grub or larv£e^ during which 
time the "■>vor]vC]\s deposit so much royal 
food in the cell that the larvae fairly 
floats in the jelly-like mass^ the cell is 
then closed by the workers^ and the 
larva coDimenccs to spin its cocoon 
which occupies about twenty-four hours^ 
the tenth eleventh and t\velfth days it 
remains in complete repose; then it is 
that transformation takes place, in which 
four days are passed, and generally on 
the sixteenth day the perfect state of the 
queen is attained. When she first emerges 
from the cell she seeks her own food like 
any other bee. 'No verv particflilar atten- 
tion is paid to her until after her impreg- 
nation ; but as soon as that has taken 
place she is at once recognized and con- 
stantly atteiiGcd by the worker bees. 
But her attendants are not ■ any special 
or certain bees set apart for that pur- 
pose, as is often stated by some writers, 
but wherever the queen moves among 
the bees they seem to detail themselves 
in sufficient numbers for the purpose of 



lO' 



feeding and caressing lier in all her la- 
bors — especially so while she is in the 

act of laying ego;s in the cells. 

Impregnation of the Qmeen. 

After hatched^ it usaally takes place 
about the fifth day after she is hatched 
out of the royal eel 1^ but in some in- 
stances I have kno^Yn them to go longer; 
yet it is very seldom, and if she should 
go unimpregnated until she is twenty 
.days old you may set it down as a fixed 
rule that she will never have copula-' 
tion Y/lih. a drone ; at least I have never 
known of an instance of the kind 
taking place, and have never heard 
of but one case that a queen has become 
fertilized after she was twenty clays old. 
She usually comes out of the hive be- 
tween the hours of 12 and 4 o'clock in 
the after-noon when the drones are fly- 
ing most abundently. As before remark- 
ed, the queen usually comes out to meet 
the drone in the air,on the wing in order 
to copulate, which it is said, once perfor- 
med is sufficient for life. But my expe- 
rience this year 1870. has taught me that 



11 



it does not always take place in tke 
open air. 

Artificial Fertilization in Confine- 
ment. 

I have made three efforts this season 
in my Hicks Bee Hive and twice oat of 
the three efforts I succeeded in having 
two beautiful Italian queens fertilized 
by a selected and pure drone as could be 
found in the City of Indianapolis. 

Here I will give my plan, practiced 
or tried in the above cases referred to. 

In the lirst place I procured a fruit 
cover which is made of a cambered or 
oval top shape of wire cloth; to this I 
made a close liting botom of a thin piece 
of board and placed a piece of honey with 
my queen and drone^ also a single work- 
er bee in the cage and then I set my 
cage in the top of the Hicks Bee Hive 
and after I had let them remain a few 
hours all closed up by themselves (except 
the workers were allowed to come up 
and remain on and around the cage 
which kept the necessary heat.) I then 
examined them twice before I found any 
perceptible change after which I took 



12 



the queen vaul removed her to the hive, 
I desired to test her qualities as to j^urity 
which I found to be all I could K^k or 
desire her to be. Let uie say the drone 
Avas dead as a door nail, in both cases 
above referred to. And to-day (No- 
vember 1:6t, 1870,) I have as pretty 
marked Italian bees as thicre is in tlie 
state from those queens tlius fertilized. 

Yet I would not say tliat the abiive 
plan will in every instance succeed. 

See illustrated Eee Journal, of 1870, 
page 473, also, same book page 479. 

But when the queen is permitted to go 
at will and pleasure as iri tlie old way to 
seek her own company, my opinion is 
that copulation takes }>uice on the wing- 
after which she commences laying in 
about four or five days. 

How a Fertile Queen is Known, 



A Fertile queen is knoAs n by her de- 
positing her eggs in the cells close to- 
gether in circles, each surrounding the 
lirst,and on both sides of the comb alike, 
sealed worker brood, will present a reg- 
nlar smooth surface of a brownish color ^ 



How a Virgin Queen or Drone lay- 
ing Q^ueen is Known. 

If you have an unfertile C|uceu, she 
may be known by an irregular brood, a 
number of raised oval cells in worker 
combs, which shows the presence of 
drone brood and indioates a drone lay- 
ing queen only^ or a queen that is 
approaching barrenness, Vv^hich is some- 
times the case, when they become quite 
old, wdiicli, if the latter, will often cause 
the old queen to be suj)erceded by a' 
young queen, reared by the workers to 
take her place. 

An Instance of Two Q^ueens in One 
Hive. 

I have known one instance of this 
kind in the summer of 1870, in a strong 
and full colony of Italian bees, owned 
by a Mr. Cal. Elliott, of the city of In- 
dianapolis. The fertile queen can lay 
both kinds of eggs, that of drones and 
workers. This, to many, will seem quite 
strange ; it is nevertheless true. 



14 



The Impregnating, or Seminal 
Fluid, 

received by the queen from tlie droae 
is contiiined in a sac called the sperm 
reservoir, or spcrmatheea, which com- 
municates with the ovaduct, ihroagli 
"which the ego-s pas-s to be deposited in 
the cells. -Therefore, when the eggs 
leave the ovaries, or egg-bag, they are 
a;jiinij)regnated ; but, in passing througli 
the oviduct, all eggs that produce work- 
<er3, or queens, are brought in contact 
vaththe mouth of the sac containing tlie 
seminal fluid, and receives a portion of 
it, which impregnates them, while all the 
(eggs that hatches drones (which is 
the . m.ale bee) passes, it is said, 
through the oviduct without com- 
ing in contact vv-ith the seminal 
iiuid. My own convictions are that 
the queen being fertilized it is fully car- 
ried through her system and in her blood 
:for life, which impregnates or fertilises 
{the drone eggs sufficient without receiv- 
ing the fluid direct from the sperm re- 
.servoir. If this is not the case, whj 
lias nature given her the instinct to know 



15 



just when her eggs for workers are ex- 
hausted and go in search of drone cells, 
while the unfertile queen will lay ber 
eggs in any and all cells ? 

It is supposed that the qneen has a 
different motion in laying eggs in work- 
er cells to that in drone cells, which may 
be true ; but, so far as my experience 
goes, I am firmly of the opinion that 
this difference comes from natural in- 
stinctj ii'hich she fully understands from 
her own feelings while in the act of lay- 
ing, as I have sat and watched her in all 
the motions she made for hours at a 
time in my Observatory Hicks Bec- 
Hive, pre^mred expressly for the pur- 
pose, in which I have timed her while hi 
the act of laying, which result was as 
follows : The first two minutes she laid 
ten eggs — five each minute — and the 
third minute she laid seven, which made 
seventeen in three minutes, at which 
rate she would fill three hundred and 
forty (340) cells in an hour, and which 
would be eight thousand one hundred 
and sixty (8,160) in twenty-four hours. 
But it is certain that she must have some 
time to rest, which we must allow. This 



16 



being tlie fact, we can safely say that a 
healthy and vigorous queen will lay from 
one thousaucl to three thousand eggs 
every twenty-four hours in the working 
season if honey and pollen is plentiful, 
all things being equal. 



CHAPTEE II. 



On Swarming, and Why Bees 
Swarm. 

It is an admitted fact that bees have 
been kept for ages past, and yet there 
are but few of to-day who keep bees but 
what are ignorant of the nature of 
swarming. 

I shall therefore try in this connec- 
tion to show briefly why stocks throw 
oif swarms, and speak of the general 
-characteristics of s\Yarming. 

First Swarm. 

When a hive becomes full of comb, 
bee-bread and brood, the cpieen has 
no longer sufficient room to deposit her 
eggs, and the workers require more room 



to store their honey ; preparation i.s 
therefore made for swarming. This is 
done by the workers, Avho instinctively 
commence the rearing of young queens. 
For here let me say if young queens are 
not reared no swarming need be looked 
for, neither will it take place, though 
they may be ever so much crowded for 
room, ilence it is not altogether true 
that bees swarm for vrant of room. Iso 
stock will ever cast a swarm unless the 
queen will leave, and she will not leave 
unless rival queens are being reared. It 
is also equally true that the old queen 
is the one that leads tlie first swarm. 
She, finding the cells all filled and occu- 
pied, and the roaring of young ones 
commenced, becomes very much agitated 
and eacli day inore restless, and not be- 
ing permitted by the guards and senti- 
nels around the queen-cells to destroy 
them, runs rapidly over the combs, some- 
times stopping upon the side of a comb 
and dropping her eggs among the work- 
ers, who greedily devour them. The 
workers also, par take of the excitement. 
A few at first, the number gradually in- 
rapid ly over the 



18 



combs, striking their attense at eacho til- 
er. And as soon as one or. more of the 
queen-cells are capped over, the excite- 
ment still increasing anion g^ the bees, as 
if by pre-concert the;' rush to the honey 
ceils and fill themselves with their pre- 
cious stores. After each bee has par- 
taken to their fill, the weather permit- 
ting, they rush from the hive in a per- 
fect cloud, as if the very halls of pan- 
demonium had been let loose among 
them, 

The Old ftueen Going With Them. 

Most usually she leaves the hive when 
about two-thirds of the swarm are out. 
I have often noticed her go back two or 
three times, as if she wished to .<co if 
all things were in readiness before she 
would make the eifort to fly. • There are 
but few^ drones to go with the first 
swarm, from the fact that the old queen 
is impregnated for life. Hence they are 
not required. Instinctively they remain 
with the parent hive, where the young 
queens are being reared. 



19 
When the First Sv/arm is Cast 

the parent hive is left without a qiiceii, 
but there are several being fast devel- 
oped. As before remaked, one or more 
of the qaeen-cells are generally sealed 
over before the old queen leaves. In 
about eight or nine days after the first 
swarm has issued a second swarm may 
be expected — that is, if the stock intends 
to cast a second swarm. 

The Piping of the Queens 

is often heard on the evening before the 
second swarm issues. This piping noise 
is somewhat in sound like that of a 
young chicken when it is making the 
effort to leave the shell in hatching, 
Su})pose a first swarm had issued on 
Monday ; just a v/eek from the evening 
of the next day, which vrould be Tues- 
day evening, if you will go to the hives 
you v/ill hear the cry of war, as it is so 
called by most of bee keepers, and is a 
sure token of a swarm to come off on 
the following day, which would be 
Wednesday. Yet this is not always a 



20 

., .^. I tell yoii, reader, the 
weather has a great deal to do in bee 
swarming. For instance : if it has been 
a long, dry spell you need not be sur- 
prised at your bees if they fail to swarm 
at all ; but let there come a good shower 
of rain and my word for it you will see 
the swarms more certain the next day, 
if it is a beautiful day, than if it had re- 
mained dry and parched, or sultry. 

?[o^v, one thing more I wish to call 
your attention to, and that is the fact of 
so many bee keepers claiming that as 
soon as a young queen is hatched she 
goes in search of other queen-cells, that 
she may tear them open and dispatch the 
more young and tender sister queens in 
their embryo state before they have time 
to hatch and become her rivals. Now, 
I wish to be plainly understood that I 
do not believe any such doctrine, having 
watched v;ith a careful eye this very 
much mistaken idea, and have in many 
instances found that as soon as a young 
queen had hatched out and was of a 
strong and vigorous form, which is al- 
ways determined and decided by the 
w^orker bees themselves, they at onee 



21 



proceed to gnaw open and demolish all 
the other queen-cells that are unhatched. 
This has been a lesson of great inter- 
est to me, and feeling unsatisfied with the 
explanations by other bee men as to how 
they were disposed of, I fully prepared 
myself with an Observatory Hicks Bee 
Hive and watched with care, and in eve- 
ry instance the result has been as above 
stated. Yet, dear reader, it may be that 

Queens Do Often Meet in Mortal 
Combat, 

and '^engage in a death struggle, I do 
not deny ; but never until one or both 
have become fertilized. Then it is that 
a disposition seems to take hold and 
predominate for the supremacy as mis- 
tress and motlier of the future colony. 
Again, how often is it that we arc asked. 
Can you tell me why it is that a swarin 
of my bees came off with two, three or 
even four queens ? Yes, dear reader : 
this goes to prove n?y theory. As above 
referred to, you will recollect that I 
have before stated that there were 
guards whose duty it was to keep watch 



9-7 



over the queen-ceils, each one iiaying a 
.separate set ; and as fast as those queens 
"svere hatched out their guards or attend- 
ants still kept watch over their queen, 
preventing any others from harming her, 
until there might be, perhaps, two, 
three or even four queens hatched ; and 
finally some one of the number, getting 
indignant at some of her sister queens' 
presence, starts out in disgust, with the 
sound of swarming in :'her shriek^^ jvijd 
they all go togethqrjin one common 
swarm, as it were, and while on the wing 
it is possible that one of . the thuee or 
more queens may copulate with a drone, 
after which they settle all together, and 
the bee-keeper, feeling himself at a loss 
as to what course to pursue, concludes 
to have one extra large swarm of then;i, 
and actually puts them all in a flour or 
salt barrel, and thinks he has done all 
things well. So the next morning he 
goes out and looks about and finds t^vo 
or three queens dead. Xow, Mr. C, 
this is just the fruits of one or more of 
your queens having copulated with a 
drone while in the swarming melius, after 
which, if they would • ever fight at all. 



23 



it will then take place, soon after they 
have been hived together.. And the re- 
sult is you find so many dead ones about 
your barrel of bees that you hived the 
day before. 



CHAPTER III. 



What a Queen-Oell Looks Like. 

Having been often asked what a 
queen-cell looked like, I will proceed to 
describe, in as clear and plain manner 
as possible. They are usually built on 
the edge or side of the brood-combs, and 
look very much like a pea-nut. They 
are about three-eighths of an inch in 
diameter at the base, and extend down- 
wards, gradually tapering to about half 
the size at the lower end or point, and 
is usually about one and an eighth of an 
inch long. It is also my humble opinion 
that queen cells are made of an entirely 
different material to that of any of the 
combs. And, this being the case, it is 
also my conviction that it is the differ- 
ent material which produces such a radi- 
cal change in the egg, or larvse, which 



24 



makes a queen. I am well aware that 
many who have been bee-keepers for 
years differ with me on this subject. But 
here let me say I have been a student 
for the purpose of learning the mysteries 
of the bee hive, which has been done 
only by dint of study and close obser- 
vation, and feel sure that what I have 
stated with regard to the change above 
spoken of, is correct. Especially so'^when 
A¥e all -admit the theory that all eggs 
are female in their sex except those pro- 
ducing drones. And any egg which a 
fertile queen deposits in a worker-cell 
will also produce a queen if transferred 
from said cell into a royal cell before it 
gets seven days old. Now, the mere 
change from the brood or worker-cells 
to that of the royal cell does not make 
a queen bee. But it is also necessary 
that the wants of the whole colony de- 
mand a queen should be raised, so that 
all may work in unison and harmoir/ 
together, the older bees performing the 
labor of carrying honey, water and pol- 
len, ail of which is essential to the rear- 
ing of worker, or queen bees. 



25 



What a Royal Queen Cell is 
Made of. 

This cell question has been for many 
years a ])nzzler to a great niauy bee 
men, and seems to be hard for most of 
them to understand; but I think if v»^e 
apply the riglit means in the right way 
it will not be hard to determine and 
come at facts. Having made several 
tests and experiments, I now feel sure 
that I make a correct statement when I 
assert that the queen cell is made from 
what is known as farina, or dust of 
flowers, and better known as bee-bread, 
a large share or quantity of which, as 
w^ell as that of pulp, is also used in pre- 
paring and building those royal cells, 
which have already been described as 
the cells in which the queen is raised 
and hatched. This forms an entirely 
different substance from that of any of 
the other cells in the hive, and which, 
when filled with the creamy-like food 
y\^hich the worker bees always supply 
for the queen while in a larvae state. It 
has the property in it of extracting a 
substance from the body of the cell, 



26 



■which also changes its chemical nature. 
This, in my humble opinion, is all ne- 
cessary in order to bring about the re- 
sult of maturing a fully devoloped 
female or queen, so that when she has 
mated with a drone that \s fully and 
properly organize<l, she is then a proper 
bee to lay all the eggs for replenishing 
the hive with worker bees and dron^es 
for future prosperity. We have exam- 
ined, time and again, those cells under^ a 
microscope, and invariably found them 
composed of a large portion of fcina, 
and a sufficient amount of pulp to give 
the cell solidity and a glossy inside coat- 
ing. 

Bo Bees Supercede Their Queens? 

To this question allow me to say they 
do, and often kill them in the spring of 
the year, after they have wintered safely 
through, as I have often observed. And 
I would further say for the benefit of all 
who may be interested in the little hon- 
ey-bee, that this killing of queens so 
early in the spring of the year is one of 
the many causes why we lose so many 



27 



stocks^ and wonder to ourselves why out 
bees died in April, or even as late as 
May, after they had begun to gather bee 
bread and honey. The question often 
arises why they kill their mother and 
oiily hope of existence. To this there 
might be many and various answers, 
some of which I will give. The first is, 
that as soon as your, as well as your 
neighbor's, bees begin to fly out and go 
in search of food, they find it quite 
searce, w^hich frequently starts them to 
robbing : and in this they always kill 
the queen as soon as possible. When 
accomplished, success is theirs, and they 
then go with the robbers, and carry off 
their ov*^n honey, if they have any, to 
the successful hives of the robbers. An- 
other reason is, it frequently happens 
that in handling your bees you get your 
hand on the queen, and get her scented 
from your hand, and in this way she is 
often attacked and killed as soon as you 
close up your hive. I have often been 
asked by persons visiting my apiary to 
let them see a queen, asserting at the 
same time that they have never seen a 
queen, which is all right ; but if they 



28 



knew.liOAv dangerous it was to the wel- 
fare and prosperity of the stock of beesy 
I. feel certain they would not insist on 
me to show the queen^ and in all proba- 
bility in doing so I Avould lose a full 
stock in a sliort time. 



CIIAPTEK IV. 



Further Explanation of Sex, 

I here wisli to explain further about 
tjie.sex of the eggs being determined at 
the time of laying; for instance^ it is ad- 
mitted by ail Bee-keepers ^\]io ]ay any 
claim to apiarian science, that a virgin 
queen at twenty-one days old will lay 
eggs which will produce drones only.- 
(But I say they are imperfect drones, 
not having the male organization fully 
developed, and cannot perform the func- 
tions of the male in fertilizing queens.) 
Hence, it must follow that tiie general 
rule holds good in the insect creation, as 
in the animal; for if we liave a pure, 
imported Italian queen, which was fer- 
tilized in her mother country, where 
there are no otlicr bees except the pure 



29 



Italian, and we raise pure virgin queens 
from her, and have no otlier drones, but 
the Black in our. apiary, we now have 
those young queens copulate with the 
Black drones, and the result is a 
cross breed, which will be the 
same of all the bees and drones that 
said queens may raise, no matter how 
long she lives or how many times she is 
permitted to swarm, or artificially divid- 
ed. Now comes the pretty part; sup- 
pose you raise the next season all your 
drones from this same queen that has 
met the black drone and queens from 
your imported queen again, and they 
copulate with the drones last mentioned; 
I ask, what will be the result? Answer 
— They will be three-quarter bloods of 
Italian stock, notwithstanding the opin- 
ion of Mr. S. D. Barber to the contrary,, 
for he says the drones from such queens 
as are fertilized by a black drone, will be 
pure Italian. (See his Bee book, page 
36.) I should very much hate to be 
compelled to have stock from such a 
man\s apiary, who would teach such 
false doctrine and at the same time do 
so much advertising as he does. Broth- 



30 



€r Barber, I hop€ you will get new light, 
and sell better stock than I saw a few 
days since from your apiaiy^, February, 
1874. Now, the' fact is, that the blood 
of such queens is tainted for life, no mat- 
ter how pure they may be in their virgin 
«tate, or before they copulate with nis 
black drone. It will also be right the 
reversra if w^e have a black queen fertile 
ized by an Italian drone; all of her 
^'tock will be half-breeds of the two 
kinds, and her drones will be half-breeds 
also. But Mr. Barber says, by his theo- 
ry, they, the drones, are pure black, or 
of the native bee. The same rule will 
hold good, as w^e have often seen, in the 
human family as well as in the animal 
'creation: also in the swine we see the 
same result's of iNature's law. 

But we v\dll now leave you, dear read- 
er, to study into cause and effect, and 
solve such problems for yourself. Hav- 
ing given you the true results of such a 
course of breeding, let me say, try and 
be honest in all your sales of Hives, 
Hights and Queens. 



CHAPTER Y. 



FEA'CTICAL LESSOH 

On Transferring Bees and Brood 

into Movable Frame Hives, 

First, get yon a good roll of cotton 
rags, and wrap some fine Y/ire around it, 
then set fire to one end, but don^t let it 
blaze; n%w step boldly up to the hive 
of bees you d.esire to transfer, and blow 
some smoke in at the entrance until you 
hear the bees set up .a humming noise, 
K'ow pick up your hive, bees and all, 
and take them to a room, or some other- 
place where the other bees will not both- 
er you in trying to rob. Of course you 
will now have your new hive in readi- 
ness, with the frames laid near by. ^^sTow 
give your bees a little more smoke, and 
in ten minutes you can lay the mouth or 
lovv'er end of your old'hive close to your 
new movable frame hive, and with a 
good hammer, or hatchet, and cold-chis- 
el, cut the nails of your old hive, and 
take off one side. 'No'\y have a table, or 
bench, on which to lay your combs- 



32 



of brood, and procure a long-bladed 
knife, well sharpened on a regular scythe 
stone, ^Yhich makes the .best edge for 
cutting out the combs. Be careful to 
take out all the combs, a sheet at a time, 
and with a goose - feather, or small 
broom, brush oif the adhering bees into 
your new hive; also, be careful and do 
not bruise or mar the brood in handling, 
and lay into a neat pile as you take it 
out, and brush oif the bees into your 
new hive; after which you crln take a 
frame and fit a comb of brood, being 
careful to keep the same end to the top 
of your frame as it stood in the old hive, 
find Avith a Xo. 9 or ip bradawl make a 
few holes through the frame and put in 
wooden pins, or white thorns, which 
you must prepare, or get quite a number 
beforehand, of some tough, good wood; 
hickory will be best. The pins must be 
about two and a quarter inches long, 
gradually tapered like a darning needle. 
After you have thus fitted all the brood 
in the frames, place them in proper shape 
as they were before, with the combs near 
the middle of the hive. Your bees be- 
ing already clustered in the hive, you 



33 



will have no trouble in handling them 
further, .only to. be careful not to mash 
or crush them as you close up your hive 
gently. Now take and set the new hive 
where the bees formerly stood, and you 
will have the gratification of seeing them 
at work in less than thirty minutes. In 
a day or two go to the hive and open 
slowly and gently, and make a careful 
exammation of the combs, to see that 
they are all in the frames properly, and 
that all is right; but if any have warped, 
straighten them, and draw out all the 
wooden pins that can be spared, as the 
combs will in two or three days be all 
fastened by the bees in the frames. 

The above is one of the best plans, 
and by far the most speedy. 

Why is it that Bees of the Present 
Bay do not Swarm so Much, nor 
Make as Much Honey, as They 
Did Years Ago, During the Early 
Settlement of the Country? 

Now, reader, you have no doubt asked 
this question more times than I know 
anything about, and in all probability 



liave during tlie. fairs where I have been 
lecturing asked me the same. Ajid while 
I now attempt to give you a fair and an 
honest answer^ let me say, it is of the ut- 
most importance for the suc'cess of an 
apiary, that it should be located in a 
neighborhood where the bees can readily 
find an abundant supply of good pastur- 
age. The success of bee-keeping de- 
pends greatly upon this. As well might 
a stock-grov>Tr expect to make his cattle 
profitable without supplying them prop- 
erly with food, as to,,^suppose th?t bees 
will live, thrive and be of benefit t<> their 
owners without obtaining constant sup- 
plies of pollen and honey, in some way, 
from spring to fall, with but little, if 
any, intermission. ,1 suppose that any 
school girl or boy ten years old could 
very easily answer the cpiestion, if I were 
to ask wliy it is that cattle, horses and 
hogs that run at large novr-a-days, do 
not thrive as well as they once did when 
this country vras new; yet the first ques- 
tion has been a puzzler to many older 
heads than mine, and vrould-be icise bec- 
Jceepers. But they never think once that 
it is just as essential in the one case as in 



the other that the efforts of man must be 
put forth ill furnishing the necessary sup- 
ply that nature once furnished, but now 
shorn from the land; and if not pro- 
duced through and by the effort of the 
bee-keeper, they will fall far short of that 
most bountiful and richest of all dain- 
ties, which cannot be procured in any 
other way than through and by the hon- 
ey-bee; which was gathered from the 
flowers all over this broad land of the 
North American Continent. The coun- 
try, in^^ its wild state, produced in the 
greatest abundance an unvarying succes- 
sion of flowers, from early spring until 
frost came, yielding for the harvesters 
(the Bees) -^unlimited supplies of bee- 
bread and honey, as well as propolis, or 
glue, for their use in stopping up cracks 
and lining their old-fashioned hives, so 
rudely made and furnished to them; all 
of which (except the old-fashioned hive) 
are just as essential now, as in the days 
of the primitive fathers, to propagate 
very rapidly, and to store up immense 
quantities of honey, bidding defiance to 
the moth, unless, as it sometimes hap- 
pened, a^disorganized colony "^would fall 



a prey to their depreuations. As the 
forests were felled^ End ^the country 
cleared and brought into a state of cul- 
tivation, this source of pasturage was in 
many places almost entirely cut off, un- 
til their sole dependence was on the clo- 
ver and buckwheat, which lasts but about 
two months of the year; during the re- 
mainder of the season they caiintt gather 
sufficient honey to G'lpj 'ly their immedi- 
ate wants. In such ceses m.en have pro- 
vided pasture and mr-de ruitable provi- 
sion ibr all other l:\rC3 of stock, but 
neglect-ed i/i foifo the do ost. faithful and 
productive of all servants, the Honey- 
Bee, which is left to provide for itself; 
the inevitable result of which will be 
their total extinction in old settled coun- 
tries, unless a change '3 made in this di- 
rection, and pasturage supplied for them, 
which can be done at less expense than 
for any other .stock, anch^'ith greater re- 
turns of profit. 

I hav€ tried in a former lesson given 
upon pasturage for bees, to tell you what 
kinds, or at least the most of the many 
'which are valuable plants, and will now 
say if you who desire to keep the little 



37 



pets will but halfway perform your duty 
toward them^ at the right time and in 
the right way, they will pay you over 
ten hundred per cent; besides, you will 
reap a rich reward from the crops thus 
cultivated as food for cattle, sheep, horses 
;a.nd hogs.* Besides, I feel quite sure 
you will never regret having bought this 
little book. 

Do ftueens Have a Sting? And if 
so, Do They Ever Use Them, and 
What On? 

In this lesson, dear reader, let me say 
that Queens have stings, and use them 
only on rival Queens and Drones. This 
may seem rather strange to many who 
have read our lesson upon her royal dig- 
nity when we said that they never used 
their stings on anything except a rival 
Queen. But at the time we wrote that 
lesson we did not know quite as much 
fis we do now about Bees or 
Queens. You must recollect, likewise, 

'■Alstke clover makes the iDest of har, and is fic^t-clftsa 
bog pasture, rrhieh is fnllv sobitaiitiat^d by some of tli« 
-Aret and brat farmers in thu DfighborbffeOd. 

T. Heai>, Jr., 
£attle Groaod, Tipp€canoeCo., lad. 



38 



that we desire that you may fully under- 
stand that all the mysteries are not 
learned in a short time about bees and 
their habits. And let us further say 
that we had never know^n in all our ex- 
periments up to Jnly, 1874^ that a virgin 
Queen would wilfully, and apparently 
maliciously, attack an innocent drone 
and send him to his long home by sting- 
ing him to death without mercy. But 
such is the fact, and we have two living 
witnesses who will attest it, having seen 
the same incident, which we shaJl now 
relate. 

We think it was about the 10th of 
July, 1874, that we received a letter 
from a Mr. D. T. Musselman, of Cam- 
den, Carroll County, Indiana, who de- 
sired us to come to his place and assist 
him in the artificial swarming of his 
Italian bees, all of which were in good 
condition in the Hicks Bee-Hive. We 
arrived at his place of residence on the 
18th. He and ourself, in company with 
a friend, proceeded to extract hon- 
ey from the combs of a few frames, and 
to make up some five or six extra stocks. 
Then he took us to a strong and vigor- 



39 



ous hive of bees, in wliicli he had sever- 
al Italian Queens hatched, in small cages. 
We took one of the cages out, and as the 
drones were flying out on their usual ex- 
cursion trips, we caught one very large 
and vigorous one in less than a quarter 
of a minute. We then thought we would 
try another one, which we soon caught 
and placed in with her royal highness, 
and she treated him the same way, all of 
which was accomplished in less than a 
minute's time; and strange to say, yet 
too true, when she thrust her sting 
into them, it killed them so dead that 
they showed no signs of life, and seemed 
to be perfectly hard. The queen seemed 
to be in a perfect rage and restless, v>dsh- 
ing to escape from her confinement no 
doubt. But we will here say again, that 
as yet we have never known an instance 
where a queen has ever stung a human 
being or an animal of any kind. 
l_See lesson on Drones.'] 

More Persons than do, Should Keep 
Bees. 

We will in this lesson try to show that 



40 



it would be well for all parties con- 
cerned, and far better for the whole 
country, if more people would engage in 
this laudable and most profitable busi- 
ness. In the first place, we all acknowl- 
edge that the Honey-Bee ls a perfect 
model of industry, and shows to man- 
kind that lazy loungers are not long tol- 
erated in their household, but are soon 
expelled with a death-warrant. Again, 
if we would profit by wisdom^s ways, we 
should at least have a few stands of bees 
in our gardens or door-yards, in order to 
see them occasionally, and learn indus-^ 
trious habits, as they are at work from 
early morn till dewy eve, and yield a 
rich return to their keeper, which cannot 
be procured in any other way than by 
the industry of the little Honey-Bee. 

Again, how many there are who now 
are dragging out a miserable existence, 
who have been brought up in idleness in 
the homes of perhaps rich parents, and 
afterward become poor by not knowing 
how to work or economize? We would 
add, that if our young and rising gener- 
ation would copy more after the habits 
of the little Honey-Bee, our prisons and 



poor-house-j vs ^ ve fewer inmates, 

our courts >,v."u'^ be bothered less 
with cases of persons charged with crim- 
inal offences, and our State and county 
debts be niaterially reduced. In this way 
they would co^'^^'"''? greatly to their 
own happiness, " eonie good citizens 
and ornaments to society. Then let us 
in our efforts entreat one and all who 
can control, either by purchase or lease, 
a few rods of Mother Earth, to get and 
keep a few stands of bees. Person^ who 
live in cities, as well as those in villages 
and on the farm, may keep bees, and 
scarcely miss the time it takes to keep 
them in good trim, vx'liich can always be 
done early of a in iniing, the best time 
to perform any ^i ceded operation Vvdth 
your bees, such as artilicial swarming, or 
taking a few fr --es of honey, which 
makes a dish 1- V: L oautiful when prop- 
erly arranged oii the table at meal- time. 
It is by far mi»ch easier and clieaper 
when thus procured, than to have it to 
buy in the market places, especially so 
when honey is steadily year by year ad- 
vancing in price. 

We have written more on this subject 



42 



than we had at first intended, but when 
we see and feel the importance of it, 
which ought to interest every lady and 
gentleman, both young and old, we hard- 
ly know how and where to close our re- 
marks, without giving you some advice 
as to what is best for the poor and brok- 
en-down merchant and mechanic, as well 
as many farmers, who have failed in bu- 
siness, and women who have lost their 
husbands and left in many cases with a 
house full of little helpless children to 
support. We say to all such, let us en- 
treat you to try your hand at keeping a 
few stands of bees, as you know not 
what you can do until you have made the 
effort. We will cheerfully give you all 
the instructions v/e can, if you write to 
us, inclosing a postage stampto send you 
an answer to your questions. 

ArtiSeially S¥/aririiiig Eees. 

This is one of the simplest things in 
b ee-keeping. But before I go further 
into the explanation of making your new 
swarms, dear reader, let me say, get you 
a good movable frame hive, one in which 



43 



you feel assured you can lianclle bees with 
€ase and profit; and after you haVe thus 
made your selection, have all your hives 
made of the same size and pattern, hav- 
ing them all painted at least two or three 
weeks before you need them for use. 
This being done, you are ready for mak- 
ing your increase of stock, provided they 
are strong in numbers and plenty of 
brood. Now you can open one of your 
new hives and take out six of the frames; 
then open a hive of bees and take out 
two full frames, bees, brood and honey, 
all together, and replace in their stead 
tv>^o empty frames. Let a full frame 
stand between the empty ones, and put 
the full frames you have just taken out 
of the full hive into the empty hive, set- 
ting riiem side by side. Then operate 
on two more hives the same way, being 
careful that you do not take a queen 
from any one of your full stocks. This 
relieves them from swarming, and gives 
you six full frames in your new hive, 
which you can now place jn or at the old 
standpoint of some strong and populous 
colony, by setting the old stock at the 
same ncAv location and place your new 



44 



hive in its stead; my word for it, thev 
Yfill rarse .a queen in a feY\' days for them- 
selves, as they have plenty of eggs and 
young brood from which to fully mature 
and protect themselves for at least from 
two weeks to fifteen days^ at which time 
you can exchange a frame or two of 
brood from some populous stock, so as 
to prevent your new hive from swarming 
Vv'hen the young queen cornos out to meet 
the drone. Be careful to brush off all 
auhering bees of the last mentioned 
frames into their own respective hives, 
vrhich Y\'ill prevent your young queen 
from getting killed by the young bees, if 
you should make a mistake and put bees 
and all in together. 

A Fertile Y/orker — How Kiiown» 

My dear reader, this is one of the 
many difficulties that the apiarian has to 
contend with in bee-keepiug. and should 
be better understood, even by the older 
beekeepers. TJ^e Fertile (y/orker) is 
known only by the uneveness of the 
brood she produces (like that of a vir- 
gin queen), all drones and no v.'orker 



45 



becS;, vrhich will soon annihilate the 
whole colony^ — as I have before told you 
that drones were not self-sustaining, 
from the inct that they do not carry h on -^ 
ey, bee-bread or water, as workers do. 
It is also true that such drones are not 
i .dly developed males; hence they are of 
Lo value in fertilizing queens. The 
cause of the Fertile worker being brought 
i-ito existence is the fact ihat it was an 
cog, or quite a young grub, that was 
raised in a worker cell, in close proximi- 
ty to a royal or queen cell, that has had 
plenty of royal cream, or food prepared 
and placed so near the young worker 
lliat it has been affected by the royal 
food intended for the young queen; but 
it not having a proper cell in which to 
become fully developed, it does not ar- 
rive at that degree of perfection in its 
cr<ans of reproduction, or ovaries, as to 
become fertilized and lay eggs to raise 
bees as a fertile queen does, but being 
what I call a neuter. It has none of the 
natural fitness of nature, that is actually 
necessary to reproduce its species, and 
keep up a full family or colony of bees. 



46 



How to Get Eld of the Fertile 

Worker- 

The Avay for the apiarian to get rid of 
tliem, is to exchange a fevv frames of 
brood with a good stock of bees that has 
plenty of eggs and young bees from a 
prolific queen; and my word for it, they 
will soon clear her out of the hive, and 
raise another queen for themselves. 



CHAPTER yi. 



On the Drone Q^uestion, and What 
the Drone is for. 

Permit me to state first, that a full 
and perfect svfarm of bees consists of 
three kinds, first, the queen, or mother 
of the whole colony; second, the worker, 
or honey-gatherer; third, the drone, the 
subject of which w^e now propose to 
treat. This is the male bee, and is al- 
ways present in the swarming season; 
without which the honey-bee would soon 
become extinct, as it is essential from the 
creation up to the present time, that all 
created beings in all nature have tY\^o pa- 



47 



rents, a mother and a father; hence, the 
drone is the father of all the bees that 
may be raised in a regular swarm. He 
is only useful in fertilizing the queen, 
which, when once performed, puts an end 
to his life, and leaves the queen fertile 
for life. She lays all the eggs from that 
time on to produce both bees and drones 
for future swarms, without ever meeting 
or copulating again with another drone. 
This may seem like strange doctrine, but 
nevertheless it is true; and further let 
me state right here, that the queen can 
and does lay frequently as high as 3,000 
eggs in a day and night, in the height of 
the honey harvest; and will in any rea- 
sonable honey season lay on an average 
1,500 in twenty-four hours. This no 
doubt will be surprising^ to many, and 
also be doubted by those who have not 
had an opportunity of knowing. I wish 
further to say that it quite frequently 
happens that the queen, when she fails 
to meet and copulate with a drone for 
twenty-one days, scarcely ever becomes 
fertilized, and will also commence laying 
eggs which produce drones only, and the 
whole colony will soon become extinct 



48 



and have passed away. The drones i:;:!: 
being self-sustaining^ likevfise they have 
not the proper organs for fertilizing eth- 
er queens, and soon j)erish, leaving 1:0 
issue for sl future generation. 

Opinion of General Adair Bonb ^c a> 

I am well aware that General Ada!';, 
of HaAvesville_, Kentucky, has a differs i^b 
opinion; for he asserted, in 1871, at tlij 
North American Bee Convention^ held 
at Cleveland, Ohio, that he had a virgin 
which he had raised drones from, and 
that she became fertilized by her o^yii 
offspring, which I cannot credit; or ct 
least I feel certain that the General is ; . - 
boring under a mistake, and belie . _ 
could account for the fertility of hio sir- 
gin queen. 

The drone is larger than the worker 
bee; has no sting, and therefore is h?.rni- 
less; is a consumer, and not a producer, 
of honey, pollen and water, and lives upon 
the labors of the industrious workers, 
and is unmercifully expelled from the 
hive after the swarming season is over. 



49 



(I have often thought I should very 
much dislike to be a drone.) 

Now, dear reader, let me say to you, 
go to your bee-hive, if you have one 
you can open with ease, and learn les- 
sons of wisdom; there is v\^here we have 
n finer display of true Mother Nature 
than any raan^s pen can describe on pa- 
per. I have only opened up the way 
for a beginning for you, and am only 
sorry I have not the room in this little 
book to talk more to you, and lead you 
further into the fountain that is full of 
mystery, and will be as long as we live; 
but when you have there taken one les- 
son, it will fit you better for the second, 
and so on, until you in all probability 
will be made to exclaim, "Oh, what won- 
ders to man there are in the little Honey- 
Bee and Nature's God V 



CHAPTER YII. 



Driving Bees into New Hives. 

I would here remark that this is a par- 
tieular thing to do, especially so if you 
are not acquainted with the operation. 



>0 



yet it is also very simple^ if properly un- 
derstood. I have driven a fail swarm 
from one hive into another in fifteen 
minutes, and not have a single person 
stung, or get stang myself. My plan 
is, first to take some v/arm Avater and 
sweeten it vvell with honey, or sugar will 
do, and sprinkle the bees with the syr- 
up, and then take a roll of cotton rags 
and smoke them well (as mentioned in 
lesson on transferring), then carry them 
off to some cool and shady place, and 
turn your hive upside down, and set 
your new hive over the open end of the 
old stock to be driven. Now get you 
two good sized sticks, about eighteen in- 
ches long, and beat w^th the sticks oij 
the sides of the hive with the bees in, 
and in a few minutes they will all go up 
and cluster as a regular swarm in the 
top of your new hive. 

How to Locate Bees After Driving. 

Place them in a new location, and the 
old hive you can set back at its old 
stand-point,|where it Avill receive a suf- 
ficient number of workers to protect the 



51 



brood, and will raise another queen. 
This driving process should always be 
done at the right time, or you may ruin 
your stocks. I have made four good, 
strong stocks from one in a season, and 
had them winter well, but it happened 
to be a good season. 

How to Hive Bees and Settle Them 
When Allowed to Swarm. 

If you prefer letting your bees swarm 
naturally, I would recommend a free use 
of water to be thrown among them while 
on the wing; first, if you have no bushes 
OF fruit trees handy for them to settle on, 
I would say to get a few brushy- topped 
bushes and set them nearly where your 
bee-stands are, several days before you 
expect themto swarm; then, with a free 
use of water, as above, while they are on 
the wing, will generally settle them in 
due time. Now lose no time in making 
preparation to get them hived, which 
you can do very soon without much 
trouble. First, open the side door of 
your hive, if you have one of the Hick's 
flives, and place a small piece of board 



S2 



slanting edgewise, at the bottom of the 
hive, so your bees can have no trouble 
in going in; then before you undertake 
to do anything fuii:her, h.ave you a pint 
or more of sweetened water, made quite 
sweet; with this gently^ sprinkle the 
swarm, and after you see they have com- 
menced filling themselves, you can take 
the bushes and place them down close to 
the hive, and give the bush a quick jar 
with your hand, w^hich will leave the 
bees about all at the base of your hive. 
(Don^t be afraid of them, for I tell you, 
dear reader, they will not hurt you; this 
is w^hy I have told you to sprinkle them 
with sweetened water.) Take a little 
brush broom, or a goose-quill is best, 
and brush them in gently; after- which 
close up your door, and set them Aviiei-e 
you intend them to stand. 



1^^ CIIAPTEE YIII. 

On Patent or Movable Frame 
Hives. 

This is a subject that j>erhaps may not 
interest you, my reader, very much; and 



53 



I can also say, that I can well recollect 
when I first heard of Jthe reaper and 
mower; it was pronounced by many of 
onr forefathers to be a humbug of Yan- 
kee origin, and yet, how is the farming 
business carried on? I leave you to 
judge. But improvement is now the 
order of the day, and he who will not 
keep up, must stay behind, for I claim 
that there are many advantages obtained, 
as well as a radical changes being made, 
in the management and culture of the 
honey-bee, as in any other branch of 
agriculture. Never did our fathers or ' 
mothers take from a single stand of bees 
in one season 328 pounds of nice honey, 
until they obtained and used a movable 
frame hive. And let me further say, 
that the above amount is no uncommon 
thing now; and even from 500 to 900 
pounds have been taken in good, nioe, 
extracted honey from a single stand of 
bees in one season. I have taken 152 
pounds of nice extracted honey from a 
single stock of Italian bees, and made 
right good, strong stocks besides, which 
I sold at twenty-live dollars each in my 
hive, and my honey at forty-five cents 



54 



per pound. This may seem rather fishy, 
as used to be said by those ^^4io doubted 




a re|)orfc of any kind^ when they thought 
it uncommon; but I haye living wit- 



55 



nesses who lived on an adjoining lot^ and 
saw for themselves. I lived in the city 
of Indianapolis at the time^ where there 
are many whq know me. ; _ ^ . 

Completion Hicks Bifee-Hive. 

It was in Indianapolis I lived when I 
completed ray Bee-Hive and took out 
letters patent, in 1870, after working 
nearly twenty years on a plan to have a 
movable frame hive work to my own, as 
well as to the satisfaction of many oth- 
ers. This I truly believe I have accom- 
plished, and feel certain that a man or 
Avoman can take care of at least one-third 
more stocks in the Hicks Bee^Ilive tlian 
in any other ever invented and placed 
before the hee-keeijiHfj irorld for sale. I 
have used, and tried to use, some twenty 
different movable frame hives, but have 
neyer in any other hive procured as 
many advantages as in the Hicks Bee- 
Hive, havino; thorouo^hlv tested it side 
by side with the Buckeve and Rouo-h- 
and-Ready hives, both invented bv ^. 
C. Mitchell, the hrst of which I bought 
niore square miles of territory iu, than 



5€ 



any other man tliat ever feougkt of the 
patentee; the last hive is not, nor ever 
was, patented, and yet I see agents mak* 
ing efforts to sell Eough-and-Beady Bee- 
Hives, and rights? for the same. 

Frauds Should be Put Down. 

I apprehend that many who have 
made purchases in said hive last men- 
tioned, would like to see the inventor or 
his agent. I have also come in contact 
at fairs of various counties with the Kid- 
der and American Bee-Hives, in compe- 
tition, and have as yet been successful 
over both of the last named, as well as 
over the Tiungstroth and AY' ilkinson Bee- 
Hives, at every fair where I have met 
them. 



"Bhe Hicks Bee-Hive is one of the 
Easiest Hives to Handle Bees in 

That has ever been placed before, or of- 
fered to bee-keepers of this country. 
Time will in the future, as well as it has 
in the past, speak out and tell the truth 
as to what hive is best for all general 



57 



parpo*«s in be«-k««piftg. The Hicks 
Hive has ©nlj to be seen in order to un- 
<lerstan,d it, and tvied to be appfeciat«d. 
In it you ean see at a glance any or all 
trouble, in which your bees need assist- 
ance. No frames to be removed by lift- 
ing out, but they can be all swung at 
one motion, which gives the keeper full 
control over the whole brood at once, 
and can examine each fmme free and in- 
<lependent of any other, thereby render- 
ing bee-keeping pleasant, as well as very 
profitable; it being so arranged that arti- 
ficial swarms arc made up in five min- 
utes' time, and prevents the great loss 
by matural swarming, as they often go to 
tlie woods when allowed to swarm the 
old-fashioned way. In a word, it is the 
hive in v>^hich if you find weak stocks 
you can strengthen by changing a few 
frames with any other hive of the same 
pattern, or feed at any time, either win- 
ter or summer, without any danger of 
robbing by other bees ; also, if a queen 
is to be found, it can be done in one min- 
ute, without lifting out a frame, or hurt- 
ing a single bee in opening and closing 
the hive. Last, though not least, a lady 



58 



or child can at any time take the surphis 
honey for table use or market^ without 
coming in contact with the bees, or in 
any way interfering with the brood- 
chamber. (Sec cut of Hive, open and 
closed, shown both ways, on page 54.) 

Vexed Question About Drones Ex- 
plained. 

In this article I propose to advanoe 
my own ideas concerning drones pro- 
duced by a virgin queen, or a fertile 
worker, which I have never heard or 
read in any work on apiculttire, or ex- 
plained by any one; and why it is that 
a man as old in the bee business as Mr. 
Quinby, and who has written, perhaps, 
as much on bees as any one author in 
America, has never even tried to explain 
this subject about such drones, is a mys- 
tery to me; and yet, I hold it as a fact 
that all drones that are thus produced by 
such mothers are wholly worthless, and 
have not the proper functioHS, or in 
other words, they do not have the male 
organ properly developed, with which to 
fertilize a virgin queen, and are a perfect 



59 



set of neutei'i^, luntlier male or female. 

Now let us examine a little, and see 
Avliat the result will be. Suppose wc 
have a stand of such drones in our api- 
ary, and no other drones within four 
miles, and we have a good stock of bees 
with a good prolific mother; we nov,' ex- 
change a frame of worker brood with 
the fertile worker, or virgin queen stock, 
which are producing nothing but drones; 
the result is, the youiig bees thus placed 
in the said stock, will at once start cpieen- 
cclls and raise a good virgin queen; and 
yet they are not any better off tlian be- 
fore, from the fact that the drones are 
deficient, and cannot fertilize the young 
queen; but they v/ill have- exterminated 
the fertile worker, or the virgin queen, 
if such there is in the hive. 

How Bees are Often Lost, and Cause 
Explained. 

Now, dear reader, let me ask, if you 
do not recollect at any time in your life 
of a stand of bees being lost, and you 
did not know the cause, and often won- 
dered why it was that the brood combs 



m 



Ijecome so uneven^ and loeketl as if 
something had been gnawing them, and 
^Jmost made them look as if they had 
been cut into very roughly after the bees 
were all gone and but a few drones left 
to tell the tale of disaster? Let me here 
say to yoWj that nine times in ten you 
Riay set it down as a loss by baring a 
virgin queen whieh has never become fer- 
rilized, or a fertile worker, which is 
worse, from the fact that you cannot 
hunt them out and destroy them, as you 
can the queen. I would therefore rec- 
ommend you to hunt out and destroy 
all such virgin queens, when you dis- 
cover such brood as above, which is very 
uneven, with raised cells, and perfectly 
liaphazai'd — no regularity about it. But 
if you have no other queen to supply her 
place, then do us above, exchange a 
brood sheet from some good, prolific 
stock. I would also say, if it be that 
you are troubled witli a fertile worker, 
which I dabn cannot he found and sin- 
f/Ied out, you must also exchange a brood, 
comb, young bees and all, jufet as you 
find it, and my word for it, they will 
soon make a clearing out of said fertile 



61 



worker, and mim a qTieen for themfclve^, 
which will save ftirther trouble, if you 
have good and perfect drones in your 
apiarj. 



CHAPTER IX. 



How to Raise Italian Drones Early, 

First let me say, this requires some 
eare, and must have some attention paid 
to it by the apiaria«. You will first 
procure of some one (whom you can 
trust), a jj>iire Italian queen, say in xlu- 
gust or September, and see that you get 
her properly introduced into a good, 
strong and healthy stock of bees. Now 
when the winter sets in fairly, I would 
recommend you to put them in some 
quiet, warm and dark place, just cool 
enough to not freeze. See that they have 
plenty of honey to keep them at least 
three months before you put them away 
in their winter quarters. Now let me 
further say, you must take three or four 
pounds of honey to a quart of warm wa- 
ter, and let it stand in a tin vessel twelve 
hours, after which set it on a stove and 



m 



bring to a boil andskini. Now feed about 
a half to a table-spoonful once a day 
from the 20th of February^ until the 
weather oets warm enouo^i to set them 
out on their proper stand for the season; 
feed in old combs placed in the top of 
Hicks Hive, which can be done at any 
time; my word for it, you will have 
drones one liionth earlier than your 
neighbor, wlio trusts to luck and allows 
his bees to swarm the old-fashioned way, 
(See artifical swarming.) 

Bo sure to feed as above directed, ev- 
ery day, until tlie bees gather plenty of 
pollen and honey for natural resources. 
You can also give a little rye meal as a 
substitute for pollen v/hile feeding. 

Introduction of Italian Q,iieens — 
ThB Proper Manner of Introducing 
a ftueen to a Full Colony of 
Bees. 

First, find and capture tliC queen you 
desire to super^'ede, then cage her and 
leave the cage in the hive, say six or 
eight hours; then open your hive as 
quietly as possible, and take the queen 



63 



out of the cage, and put your Italian 
queen in the same cage; cut a piece of 
honey to plug the hole with, and then 
set the cage carefully back in the hive, 
and the bees will soon liberate her, while 
they are left alone, which will be in five 
or six hours. 

I have practiced this niethcdsome five 
or six years, and found it the best of 
many plans which I have tried, never 
having lost a single queen yet, with the 
above mode of operation, and think 
that all who tries it will have no cause 
to regret having purchased this book, as 
the above is worth ten times the cost. 

How to Eaise or Breed ftueeEs. 

First, select the stock you desire to 
breed from, and then divide tho, brood 
by placing two frames into hives you 
have made qiieenlcs's eight or nine days 
previous, and thus exchange with, say 
three hives, first cutting out all queen- 
cells in the three queenless colonies, when 
the bees will go to work and build from 
six to twelve cells in each hive, which 
you can cut out of and insert into other 



u 



fctooks, on tlie eighth daj, aud thus Ital- 
ianize some fifteen or twenty in a short 
time, letting each one raise its own 
queens. 

How to Prevent Bees from Distroy- 
ing their young, and the Cause. 

This is a lesson of importance to everr 
Lee-keeper. Fii-st let me say, as a gen- 
eral rule, the destruction of young bees 
is caused from a scarcity of honey, whidi 
is also brought about by a cold spell of 
the weather, which closes up the flowers 
or bloom of the fields, and makes it hard 
work for bees to get a sufficient amount 
of lioney to go on with the raising of 
their young, and sets them at once to 
destroying and carrying the young unma- 
tured bees out, which we so often see 
lyingjin front of the hives, of a morning, 
when we first visit our apiary. This is 
the effect of such cool weather as we have 
in the^month in May, and often in June. 
I have quite frequently seen heavy frosts 
in these two months which killed the 
flowers so that there was very little hon- 
ey to be gathered by the bees; and rath- 



♦ 



65 



cr than starve they would at once fail 
to work and destroy their young. Now, 
when you see this state of things going 
on, you nmst prevent it at once, by feed- 
ing as directed; except you will feed a 
double quantity of syrup in their case. 
Sometimes they will kill off their young 
rather than swarm, but this you can pre- 
vent by ariificial swarming, and make 
them yourself, and make many good, 
strong stocks by so doing, with an addi^ 
tion of a little feed. But if you desire- 
to obtain honey, do not practice artificial 
swarming ver}^ extensively; but keep 
your stocks strong with plenty of empty 
surplus frames, as above, and cut out all 
queen-cells. 

Foul Broods— Cause of. 

I have no doubt but that this disease 
is caused from impure honey and soured 
bee-bread, which has been stored quite 
early in the season by the bees. I think 
it is quite like every other kind of na- 
ture's production, which is frequently 
gathered by the bees before it gets ripe 
or fully matured; and being stored away 



m 



in close packages, as is the ease, which 
we all know. They store bee-bread in 
the brood-combs near where the young 
bees are being raised, and there being go 
much animal heat necessary to keep up 
the proper temperature, it causes the fa- 
rina, or bee-bread, which is gathered 
first, to become soured, with the koney 
also that they must use in preparing the 
food for the young larvae, and this im- 
pure food must necessarily bring on dis- 
ease, and is therefore called foul-brood. 

Foul Brood— How Known. 

It may very readily be known by its 
offensive smell, and on a close examina- 
tion you will discover that the brood is 
inverted, dead, and seems tt) be all tail- 
foremost in the cells, rather dark and 
ropy-like mass. The best remedy I have 
ever found in treating this disease is a 
preparation prepared thus: take pure rain 
water and boil it ten minutes and to ev- 
ery gallon dissolve fonr pounds of A 
coffee sugar and again bring it to a boil 
and skim. Now to one quart of this 
syrup put in a lump of borax (biporate 



67 



of soda) about as large as a me- 
diam sized hickory nut, and thoroughly 
dissolved while hot by stirring, and then 
let cool until about blood heat then add 
one o?. of laudinum, [tincture of opium] 
also one table spoonful of good table salt 
all to be well stirred before using, now 
take a fine brush broom and sprinkle ov- 
er the combs gently once a day, cut^ out 
all the dead brood. 

Dysentery, or Bee Cholera. 

This is also one of the most to be 
dreaded diseases that the bee-keeper has 
to contend with. ^ It is met with more 
frequently than any other among bees. 
It is very easy to distinguish it from any 
other malady, yet Ido not think it con- 
tagious as many suppose it to be. The 
bees have a tendency to be rather daun- 
cy and also have a very unpleasant odor. 
When you approach a stand affected 
with dysentery they mope or crawl slow- 
ly over their combs and often coming 
out and discharge their excrement over 
the hive as well as over their brood 
combs and honey and ii let alone often 



68 



•linger out a miserable life. In fact there 
are more bees lost in Xortli America 
with this disease annually^ than all the 
rest of the diseases known to bees. It is 
quite unpleasant to have a case of this 
kind, and in fact it is not pleasant to 
meet with a diseased subject of any kind^ 
either in the animal or Jiuman flimilv. 



Treatment of Bee Cholera. 

But like either of the last mentioned 
races I claim it can be successfully treat- 
ed when we find a colony troubled with 
this complaint. The first thing to do is 
to take the stand to some quiet warm 
place and open them out gently so as 
not to get them to flying and have you 
some good syrup, made of honey if pos- 
sible, boiling with a pint of good nice 
rain water to two pounds of honey, and 
skim it well, so as to take off all im- 
purities, and let cool, so that you can 
now 23ut one tabtc -spoonful in some old 
bits of comb laid in your hive, and the 
bees will come up and feed on this syrup. 
Feed the above amount once a day reg- 



()9 



ularlv; wliGii in a few da} s you can sot 
them. 



CHAPTER X. 



The Italian Bees, and Tlieir Supe- 
riority over tb.e Comnion Native 
Bee. . 

Let me here say that the description 
of this class or race of bees has so often 
been explained heretofore that I hardly 
deem it necessary to enter into a full dc- 
tailj but suffice it to say that all who 
have tested their qualities as Avorkers 
universally acknowledge them as being 
far ahead of the native or common bees 
of this country. In the first place, they 
are more friendly disposed toward their 
keeper, and can be handled with more 
pleasure, and less danger of being stung, 
Avhile it is acknowledged by all that 
they are by far better haney gatherers; 
also, they are larger than the Black 
Bees, and defend their hives from rob- 
bers better, and, in a v/ord, let me say I 
have yet to hear of a colony of pure 
Italians ever being taken with the_23^.9f» 



70 



called the moth worms; v/hile we, as 
bee-keepers, can not say the same for 
the native class we have had and tested 
over a century in this country. The 
Italian queens being of a very beautiful 
golden color, are more easily found in a 
hive or swarm, and are more prolific 
than black queens are, which give their 
keeper larger and stronger swarms ear- 
lier in the season, so that we can be 
more certain of getting a generous sup- 
ply of honey, if native fields, with their 
millions of bloom, secrete the nectar 
for them to work on. This class, called 
the Italian Bees, were discovered dur- 
ing the wars of Napoleon by Captain 
Boldenstein, who brought them over the 
Alps in 1843. They were also intro- 
duced by a celebrated German bee- 
keeper, in 1853, into Germany, and in 
1860 into the United States. 1 shoulil 
say more in their favor, but I fear some 
one will at once say that Hicks is grind- 
ing his ax for the sale of queens; but be 
this as it may, let me say to you, brother 
bee-keeper, that if you once try the pure 
Italian Bees^ you would not give one 
stock for two of our old-fashioned na- 



71 



tives^ which we first procured as seed 
from the woods. • I have them as pure 
as they are in Italy, and am better 
pleased every day with them; and if you 
w^ould come to my apiary you would be 
convinced the same as I am. I could 
here give many names as references who 
have procured queens of me who have 
universally spoke in praise of the Italian 
Bees as being by far superior to the old- 
fashioned kind; they also vrork on red 
clover in August. While the honey har- 
vest is scarce they seem to be busy on 
many dark and misty days, while the 
black bees are idle, and using up their 
already scanty supply. 

How to Italianize a Hundi'ed 
Stands with One Sneen, and 
Leave Her in the Same Hive. 

After you have a good queen intro- 
duced, as before stated [see lesson on 
introducing Italian queen to bees], yoii 
will, as soon as she is laying eggs freely, 
go and kill, say about four bees in your 
black stock, and in eight da.ys go to 
them again, open and examine care- 



72 



fully and cut out all queen cells. Then 
you can take out one frame of each hive 
and brush the bees back into their own 
hives. Now go to your Italian stock, 
and take four frames; brushing the bees 
off into their own hWo, and put in the 
four from the other stocks, and give each 
black stock a frame from the Italian 
brood from which they will raise queens 
from the fresh eggs, pure Italian, and if 
you have other black stock you can also 
go and kill their queens, and in eight 
days you can cut out part of the queen^s 
cells^ and divide them by inserting the 
combs, wliich will save much precious 
time. 

What is Pollen, and Why Bees Use 
it for Food. 

In this lesson \se shall perhaps differ 
greatly from most bee-keepers. Pollen 
is the fecundating dust of i^lants, and is 
of a mealy like substance, which bees of 
all classes seem to have a special desire 
for, and especially so with the honey bee 
as it is well known by all persons who 
keep thcra, that they gather and carry 



73 



into their liives in large quantities, of 
which it is said they use during winter 
as food; but my experience has targht 
inc to respect this idea of theirs so far 
only as the young bees are concerned, 
which are under fourteen days old, after 
being liatched, and before they become 
outside workers, for it is during their mi- 
iiorit}' tliat they are the nurse-bees in the 
hive, as well as they are the wax-work- 
ers the first thirty days of their active 
life in gathering honey, pollen and 
water for supplies, after which they per- 
form such other duties as are necessary 
about the hive, in guarding and de- 
fending that which they have spent the 
best part of their lives for. Dear read- 
er, let me once more say to you that the 
worker bee does not live over fifty days 
from the time it commences its labors 
as a honey gatherer. It is also my opin- 
on'that the older bees are the ones that 
bring in what is known as ptopolis or 
bee-glue, of which they use large quan- 
tities to close up cracks and openings in 
their hives. This pollen is bread for 
i^iiQ young and tender bees that are per- 
forming duty in the hive, in preparing 



74 



food for the young vet iinhatclied, and 
also, it is my opinion, ^vhich I feel cer- 
tain, is quite correct, that it is those bees 
that are always most busy in cleaning 
cells from which bees are constantly 
hatching. 

How to Teed Weak Stocks in Order 
to Save Them, 

This will be a job deserving of some 
care; but while it has been my misfor- 
tune to meet with many such in my 
travels among bee-keepers, I will here 
give my method, which I have found 
nine times in ten to prove effectual. If 
you have honey, I would recommend it 
to be used, but if not, then sugar will 
do by preparing it thus: Take rain water 
and heat it to a boil, af.er which put 
into a quart of water four pounds of A 
coffee sugar, or, if honey is to be used, 
put in six j)ounds of honey, stir well un- 
tjl it again boils, and then skim off* all 
impurities, and let cool. Xow you can 
tike some bits of old combs, and pour a 
spoonful or two on the same, and place 
in the top of or on the hive, so the bees 



75 



can come up and take it all down. If it 
is in tlie winter^ set your hive in a warm 
room, where there v/ill be no noise or 
confusion, feed regular every day for ten 
or fifteen days. This mode will save 
many stocks that would otherwise be 
lost. It will pay to feed all such stocks. 

Old Fogies Mnst Succumb. 

But, says one old fogy, if I have to do 
all this, I would rather let them go. 
Yes, my old friend, your ideas are just 
vv^hat has got most bee-keepers in past 
ages to believe it is all in luck, when, in 
fact, it is science. Will you attend to 
it? Let me here suggest that when you 
have a pig, or a calf, cow or horse that 
has met with soine accident, and got 
down, as the >ayiiig is, at the heel, 
would you let them go? I rather guess " 
not, but would at once proceed to doctor 
them up, and reap your revs^ard in the 
. future by the increase of its value. 
Therefore let me impress it upon you to 
attend to your bees at once, when you 
can so easily do so by following the 
directions laid down in this little book. 



70 

Alvice to Beginners in Apicul- 
ture. 

I will here say a few words to tliose 
Y\"lio contemplate going into the busincs-^ 
of keephig bees as a means of making a 
living at, it, which, I apprehend will be 
many, when I shall have gone, and not 
return this way any more. First, let 
me say that February or March are the 
best months in which to make your pur- 
chases of stocks; and don't always 
dioose the heaviest as best, but rather 
select those with good bright combs and 
a sufficiency of honey to last two months. 
Also let me say, if you desire to succeed 
in the business, you must adopt a good 
movable frame hive, and get you a neat 
and well made sample, by which you 
will also make or have made all the 
hives you may need for a year, just like 
the sample hive, and have them all 
painted two good coats of paint and oil. 
Then, vvhen the bees are about to 
svrarm, I would have all the stocks 
transferred into your new hives, and in 
all probability you can have an increase 
of one-third by your operation of trans- 



ferring^ if you are careful and under- 
stand wliat you are doing. [See lesson 
on transferring.] It will be necessary 
tliat you look at your bees by opening 
the hives at least once or twice a week, 
and if you should discover any rnoth- 
worms, take them out of the brood 
combs with a sharp-pointed knife, also, 
don't fail to put your foot, on every 
worm, and send it to its long home. 
Don't try to do too much the first year, 
as here is where many make failures in 
starting out with big ideas, and finally 
pronounce the business a humbug. But 
let me say there is no surer w^ay in all 
the agricultural pursuits than the busi- 
ness, and yet it may be badly managed, 
and prove almost ruinous to those wdio 
neglect its demands, and finally the next 
we hear of them is that they pronounce 
it all in luck, and wind up with perhaps 
many dollars out of pocket. And yet I 
know of hundreds who have made it a 
success, and some of them have made 
fortunes. It is a business in which both 
old and young can engage, and make it 
a success if they will put their energies 
to work with a will and determination 



to go through. I know of two young 
ladies^ sisters, who made nearly seyen 
thousand dollars in one vear; and yet 
they liye in the cold and bleak State of 
Yv^isconsin. I will further add that 
there is scarcely any place in the United 
States so poor but there can be a few 
stands of bees kept to advantage, while 
almost any person could and can keep 
bees, which v>'ill yield a larger income 
than any other stock can possibly do 
with the SAnie cost and expense. It is 
also a fact that no one dare gainsay that 
bees ^\ill pay better diyidends on the 
capital invested than U*nited States 
bonds of any class or series, and better 
than any railroad, canal, turnpike or 
gravel road coporation have or will ever 
pay in this country. T'>'ot even the 
banking business can begin to pay such 
dividends as bees well managed pay 
their owners. I know that many will 
say I have gone Avild on this subject; but 
here allow me to say I know of a gen- 
tleman in Northwestern Indiana who 
made five hundred dollars in one season 
from one stand of bees in his door-yard. 



79 



Each Month's Labors Laid Out for 
the Apiary. 

March — This is the month you 
should see that all your bees have a 
generous supply, and if the weather is 
warm you should set them on their 
regular 'stands for the seas«n. 

April — Examine and see that they 
feed plentiful; also be careful and set 
all your hives where you intend ihem to 
remain, keep a coyer over all your 
stocks; also, if they are not gathering 
pollen, give rye bread. 

May — Examine carefully, and see 
that all stocks have a prolific qBe8n, 
and that no robbing is going on. 

June — In this month you should 
supply the surplus chamber with 
frames or boxes, and give them all the 
combs you can to fill with surplus 
honey, aiid if y<>u don^t wish swarming, 
cut out all the queen cells. 

July — If you desire so to do, now is 
your time for transferring and making 
up a few extra colonies; if not, keep 
plenty of frames or boxes supplied for 
others te strre surplus honey in. ^ 



so 



AuGUSTT — Xow is the greatest time 
for trouble with the robbers. Keep the 
entrances closed, so that a single bee 
can pass out and in at a time. Also be 
cai^ful about the moth-Y\"orm^ and be 
sure to kill all you see. 

September — Now is the time that 
you should keep all ^^uir stocks strong 
in numbers, and see well to it that they 
all have good prolific queens. It is 
also a good month to procure Italian 
queens. 

October — Is gcod^ also^ to introduce 
queens, and guard well against moth- 
worms; also see that you keep your bees 
in good condition. 

NoVEMBEE — In this month equalize 
your bees, and take away all honey 
from the caj^s, but leave plenty in the 
brood chamber, so they will be supplied 
through the winter. 

Decembee — This is tlie first winter 
month, and is the proper time to hive 
your bees; if the weather gets cold so as 
to freeze the ground quite hard, close up 
all lower ventilation when you put them 
in your bee hive, cellar or cave, which 
should have plcrity of upper ventilation; 



81 



the hives must have upper ventilation; 
keep the temperature at about 35 cleg, 
above zero^ and keep the place you have 
your bees stored in very dark and (juiet. 
If the winter should be very open find 
warm^ I vould recommend to 'eave 
them on their summer stonds^ aid fill 
the top of your hives v/ith dry cobs or 
fine cut straw^ made quite dry, 

Januaey — This is the month _'n 
which have all the hives you need f r 
the coming year made and v-ell painted, 
which will be in readiness for SAvarming 
season or artificial division, which is by 
far the best where you use a good frame 
hive,. 

FEBECAiiV— See well to it that your 
bees are vvell supplied with hone}^, and 
if you have any stocks from which you 
expect to breed queens and drones, you 
should feed a little syrup about the 20th 
of this month. [See lesson on feeding 
bees — weak stocks.] 

'Last, though not least, I will here 
once more impress it upon you to le 
])rompt in all your undertakings with 
bees, and do everything in due season, 
as per advice, and success is yours, Avitli 



n rich reward for all your troubles; also, 
it is a true saying whatever is worth do- 
ing at all is worth doing well. 

On Choosing a Location for an 
Apiary. 

In making your selection, let me say, 
choose an east view, so your hives may 
have the benefit of the early morning 
rays of the sun to enliven them to early 
action in gatliering honey and pollen, 
all of which is necessary to the welfare 
of your bees, as well, also, as to the 
keeper. If the above position or situa- 
tion cannot be obtained, or something 
as near as possible, I would, as a next 
btst choice, take a south front, but by 
no means allow your stands to receive 
the noonday sun, as this would be detri- 
mental, quite often causing the combs 
to melt down and destroy your bees, as 
well as your honey, and set bees to rob- 
bing. 

How to Build a Bee House. 

Now, dear reader, let me tell you how 
I build a bee house, one thataBy fanner, 



83 



as well as the more polislied mechaiik, 
can build quite cheap. Set two rows of 
posts, say about • six feet apart in one 
row, and m the other twelve feet apart, 
and eight feet apart in the last men- 
tioned row, and in the first let your 
posts be about six feet above ground, 
and cut them off on a line quite level, 
and spike poles or scantling on top to 
rest your rafters on; then spike a scant- 
ling about six inches above the ground 
on your lowest row„ of posts, which now 
prepares it for siding, like a barn, on 
one side, then put on a good roof of 
clapboard or plank; this constitutes your 
bee house. You can arrange your bees 
under this shed so the hives will front 
eastward and to the open side of your 
shed, which is all sufficient for summer 
use, remembering always to set the hives 
about three inches clear of the ground 
by driving four small stakes down, and 
leveling them so the hive will stand 
quite plumb. Let the hives stand about 
eighteen inches clear of each other, re- 
memberings also, to have them painted 
df different colorg. and set alternate, ^Vi9 
iwo of the same shade • side by aide, 



84 



wliicli will; if practiced as |1 have sug- 
gested, save many valuable queens for 
you in the course of a season. 

Pasturage for Beets, 

I would next recommend you and all 
the rest of mankind to sow seeds of va- 
rious kindS; such as Alsyke clover, white 
clover, plant trees unci shrubs of various 
kinds, as they will be u,ieful for bees, as 
well as for man and teast, producing the 
best of pasturage for stock, and hay lor 
leeding your cattle, shfep and horses 
during winter; especially the Alsyke 
clover can not be excelled for hay, as 
well as for honey. It stands ahead of 
all other. There are many trees I might 
here mention as shade and fruit trees, of 
which the linden or basswood is first, 
poplar maple, elm, buckeye or horse- 
chestnut, also, |the yellow willow is fine 
for bees, together with apple, peach, 
pear, plumb, apricot, nectarine, cherry, 
quince, and I would not forget the black 
locust; also, there are many small shrubs 
which are of value, such as currant, 
gooseberry, raspberry and blackberry. 



So 



of whicii I need not mention further, as 
they are common to almost all who hare 
any knowledge of farming or gardening, 
and are all good for honey. 

CHAPTER XI, 



Bee Stings, and Remedies for the 
Same. 

I will here give a cure for bee sting.. 
As soon as you are stung procure a good 
sized padlock key, fill the barrel about 
half full of soda and salt mixed, then fill- 
up with water, or cider vinegar is better,: 
then apply the key over the wound with 
the solution on the part so as to cover 
where the sting vras extracted, which 
should always be done first with your 
finger nail or knife blade. 

Another Simple and Sure Remedy 

That all persons have at their fingers- 
end is to first extract the sting as soon as 
possible, as before stated, with your nail 
or knife-blade, then wet the end of your 
finger in your mouth, and then insert it 



BQ 



lu your ear^ so as to get wax from what 
we might call a dirty ear^ and rub on 
the wound, which will give relief quite 
soon. This is a sure and positive cure, 
which we all have at any time and place 
we happen to be. It sometimes hap- 
pens that persons get badly stung, and 
that it makes thcDi very sick, causing 
terrible swelling, blindness, and excru- 
ciating pain. In all such cases I would 
recommend a free use of salt water as a 
^Y^^^h, abundautlv aDplied t^ the parta 
stung, and a cup of warm water, with a 
table-spoonful of mustard, w^ell stirred 
in as an emetic, vvhich must be drank at 
once, so as to produce vomiting as soon 
as possible. This will relieve in severe 
cases. 

The Profits of Bee-keeping Com- 
pared with that of Other 
Stocks. 

In this article I propose to show you, 
dear reader, that there is no other in- 
vestment that will begin to pay ^e 
profits to the owner that bees will if 
properly and fairly managed, yet ho^ 



87 



often is it that persons will try to snub 
yon, and turn up. tlieir noses and say 
'^It is too small a business for me," when, 
if you were to take the trouble to in- 
vestigate the profits they reap year after 
year, you would find that vou, with 
ten stands of bees properly managed, 
would reap a larger income in one year 
than that man or woman who is afraid 
of getting into the small business of 
bee-keeping. For instance, let us look, 
and contrast one stand of bees and the 
profits of the sam^e with tliat of a sheep 
for one or two years. We will allow, 
say five dollars for the sheep^ and the 
same for the bees, which I think is a 
fair price. Now for the result. The 
bees will have,. say one extra stand, as 
they, no doubt, will swarm (which I 
would much prefer — artificial swarm- 
ing), and you will, of an ordinary sea- 
son, get, say forty pounds of honey to 
the stand, worth thirty cents per pound. 
This would bring you twenty-four dol- 
lars, and your extra swarm is w orth five 
clollars more; in all it would be twenty- 
nine dollars. Deducting the cost of hive, 
say two dollars, would leave you twenty- 



88 



seven dollars clear profit. Now what 
has the sheep made all this time? for I 
wish to be fair, and give due credits 
where they belong. Well, in the first 
place, it is worth three dollars a year to 
feed the sheep, and say we now have a 
lamb six months old, worth two dollars 
and fifty cents for vrool and lamb, which 
leaves only fifty cents as profit, to say 
nothing about time and trouble of feed- 
ing both winter and summer, while 
your bees have boarded themselves and 
made you a clear gain of twenty-seven 
dollars. But, says some doubting 
Thomas, this will do to talk about and 
show on paper. Well, Mr. T., I pr©- 
pose to more than double this with my 
bees, and will here challenge any man 
to try me on ten or twenty stands of 
bees, and he to take the same number 
of sheep, and if I will not double his 
profits in one or t^n years, he shall have 
all I make from the bees, if he will do 
the same by me and give me all hi* 
sheep, with their increase, at the end ©f 
said term if I beat him. 



89 



A Mystery Much Doubted by Other 
Authors. 

I have often forced a colony of bees 
to tti^ke queens by taking their queen 
from them^ which they at once proceed- 
ed to supply as soon as they discover 
their mother.~.queen missings and it often 
happens that when their young queen 
has hatched out and become fully of age 
to meet the drone, she will make her 
bridal tour, and is lost by some acci- 
dent — high winds, or a bird may catch 
her before she reaches her home again. 
This, I say, is often the case, which 
should always keep the bee-keeper on 
the lookout, and to know the exact 
condition of every hive of bees in his 
apiary; and if he should find a stock of 
bees thus made queenless, it demands 
his immediate attention, and he should 
have one or two frames of brood with 
eggs exchanged from some other strong 
stock, in order that they may again 
make a queen for themselves. Now 
comes the mysterious part. You will 
often find queen cells built on one or 
more of tkeir old combs in which there 



90 



could not have been a single egg, except it 
was transferred from one of the combs 
which you gave them with eggs and 
brood .How came they to build a queen 
cell on a shiset of comb of their own 
when there could not have been an egg 
in it^ except by transfer from one comb 
to another? Oh, says on^, tkey had 
eggs of their own. Now, my dear read- 
er, here let me say this can not be so. 
from the fact that bees do make their 
qneens from eggs that are laid or de- 
posited by a fertile queen in the worker 
cells, and they can not be thu.^ convert- 
ed or transferred into a royal queen 
after they are seven days old. Hence 
you will discover that during the time 
required to hatch the queen that was 
lost on the bridal trip would have been 
some twenty-four or five days up to the 
time you discovered your stock was 
queenless, and gave them the frames of 
brood, as above referred to. I appre- 
hend that the theory, as taught by many 
writers, about the queen depositing the 
egg in the royal cell is false, and can not 
be relied on as being correct; and that 
the worker bees, which are not more 



91 



than fourteen days old, are the managers' 
of all that pertains to the welfare of tl\e 
inside arrangements of the hiye^ I have 
no doubt^ for Ave see them^ as^ I have 
before remarked^ enter on their duties 
from the moment they are hatched out 
of their cells. I think I have said 
enongh upon thife-point^ and shall leave 
the student to his observatory hive for 
further instructions^ which will be of 
more value to you than all I could 
write in an age; yet this will serve to 
give you a start. 

Inverted Brood, and What is the 
Result. 

■ I here wish^ for the purpose of draw- 
ing from others^ if possible^ tlieir views 
as to the true cause of the youug. bees 
being raised or nearly matured in their 
cells, with their posteriors, in front of 
cells, which I have often seen, and can 
not account for such a state of affairs. 
Would it not be reasonable to suppose 
that this would cause foul brood, whicli 
is so much dreaded by bee-keepers? It 
is my humble opinion this state of 



99 



things would »citurally be inclined to 
produce said disease^ from the fact that 
it would be impossible for them to hatch 
with their heads toward the center of 
the comb and the tail outwards, w^hich 
must produce death before they are 
fully matured, and a perfect ropy mass 
will be the result, which, with the ani- 
mal heat of the older bees^ causes a pu- 
trid and offensive smell, which is not 
pleasant to the apiarian or visitor^ and 
to be loathed by all who may come in 
contact with it. I have often seen such 
brood, and I think, without exception, 
foul brood ensued if they were not taken 
out in due time. I desire the opinions 
of others as to the true cause, if any 
other there be. Let me hear from any 
one who is well posted on the subject of 
foul brood.. 

Who may Keep Bees and Make 
Them Pay, 

In connection with the above sub- 
ject, I might say a great deal, and many 
things that would tickle the mind, as 
well as make you feel quite certain that 



93 



Ood never made a man^ woman or child 
who had arrived at a proper age of dis- 
<}retion but could keep bees. But while 
I claim this to be true, I also know that 
there are many who are too indolent and 
careless to even keep themselves, mutch 
lese take care of a few stands of bees. 
And yet, notwithstanding, I might add 
that the poor, as well as the rich, can 
make bee-keeping quite profitable. 
Then let me further say, the farmer, the 
mechanic or the lawyer^ as well as 
the doctor who may have a few moments 
to spare morning and evening, may keep 
a few stands of bees, as well as the poor 
washerwoman, or a lady with her thou- 
sands of dollars can make bee-keeping a 
success, and have upon her table one of 
nature's richest and choisest of luxuries 
at a very small expense. I may also 
add to the list very many ministers of 
the gospel, who have worn themselves 
out in the service of the ministry, and 
have been superannuated on account of 
poor health. To all such let me say, 
try bee-keeping. If you but try you 
will become interested in the business, 
and make it pay. I would not forget, 



94 



also, the poor consumptive, who needs^ 
ont-door exercise in order to get pure 
air for his or her kings, with that of 
moderate exercise for the body. To all 
such as mentioned let me say, if you are 
piDor from, and have been in the service 
of the Gospel, standing as a superan- 
nuated minister, I will let you have one 
of my hives, y\'ith bees in the same, at 
half price, and give you the right to 
make and use all you may want there- 
after. 

I will now talk to the ladies a little. 
And first allow me to say that when 
they become interested in the bee busi- 
ness they make the best of apiarians, 
frpm the fact that they take more pains 
in the handling of their bees than 'men 
do, and it is, in the very nature of 
things, adapted to their nature and dis- 
po3ition,-for tliere is nothing that loves 
kind treatment better than a swarm of 
bees, whicli ladies are- always ready to 
bestow. Furthermore, they attend more 
closely and strictly to their work, which 
is the only sure road to success, as it 
begets industrious and steady habits. 
If we could induce the young and rising 



95 



generation to pay more attention to bee- 
keeping, and not so mucli to the flippant 
styles of fashion, we wonlcl have a bet- 
ter class of men and women, and fewer 
paupers and convicts in our asylums, 
penitentiaries and county jails. 

How to Winter Bees Successfully. 

In this lesson I will give the most 
tipproved plan, at least the one I like 
best. In the first place, let me say, 
never put your bees away in their win- 
ter quarters until the weather has be- 
come settled cold and the ground has 
frozen quite hard. Then you can put 
them in a cellar, if it is a dry one, but 
if not let me entreat you to prepare^ a 
house with double walls, so that you 
can fill the^space w^ith spent tanbark, or 
sawdust will do; at any rate, prepare a 
house that will prevent freezing, as it 
requires, a great deal more honey 
to winter out in the open air than 
it does in a place that is dry and will 
not freeze. After you have thus pre- 
pared suitable winter quarters, you cia 
now set your bees in carefully^ not jarr- 



96 



ing tlieni in handlings and place the 
standS; ►say about six inches apart^ leav- 
ing plenty of upper yentilation; also^ be 
careful that mice do not enter any of 
the stocks and cut the combs^ as well as 
kill many of the bees. It is a well 
known fact that the wood mice are 
death to bees, and often destroy a whole 
swarm in a few days. You must keep 
your cellar, or bee house (as the case 
may be), cool enough, so that the bees 
will not become restless; also, warm 
enough so that it ^^•ill not freeze; the 
proper temperature is about 35 degrees 
above zero, and if diy, you will have 
no trouble in wintering safely through. 

How toJKeep Honey from Souring, 

, This may be done either of two vrays 
or modes. The first is to boil and skim ' 
thoroughly, and put away in good 
earthen or glass jars, and cover up 
closely. In this way I have kept^ and 
have known otliers to keep, honey sev- 
eral years. But if you desire to keep 
your honey so as to retain all its origi- 
nal flavor, y*>!i \vill let it stand a few 



97 



lioiirs in an open vessel;, and then warm 
it up to about blood heat; which will 
cause all impurities to come to the top^ 
which you will take off o-entlv with a 
large spoon or fine skimmer, then jar 
and can as j^ou would fruit, which will 
also keep for five years and be good. 

To Keep Honey from Granulating. 

You must boil gently thirty minutes^ 
and skim off all impurities, and place 
away in ordinary jars, and keep covered 
with paper, or a cloth will do, when 
kej)t close, to keep out all dust or in- 
sects. 

To Make Taffy from Honey for the 
Children. 

Let me say this is one of the most 
healthy and best of candies for our little 
folk, which can be prepared thus: Take, 
say a €j[uart of good strained honey and 
cook it in a skillet, or an oven such as 
our mothers used to bake the good old- 
fashioned corn dodger in, and put into 
it a small lump of alum half the size of 



98 



a small hickory i\at, and boil until it 
begins fo make wax^ which you can test 
by having a cup of cold v/ater^ and witk 
a spoon drop a few drops into it, and 
you can soon judge of its qualities^ 
which, wdien sufficiently hard to suit, 
you may now take pie-pans and butter 
them before pouring the taffy in, after 
which pull, and use as best suits your 
taste. 

What is Honey Dew, and How is It 
Produced? 

I do not wish to go into a long de- 
tailed etory, but shall proceed at once 
to give my own views, which I believe 
are as near correct as anything I have 
ever read upon the subject; hence, if I 
should reiterate in part the views of any 
former opinion expressed, it w^ill only 
be so far as I shall coincide with som@ 
of the expressions that have come und^r 
my especial notice. But feeling that all 
is not true that has been or yet remaia,s 
to be written, I shall therefore give you, 
dear readers, what I feel assured afa 
facts, so far as I have been aWe if 



911 



gather ihera- TTenco, when wo take 
into account tlie mysteviGs that iNatnrc's 
God has bronolvt about to produce and 
perfect her vrork in all the vegetable, as 
well as the animal and insect kingdoms, 
I feel like saying that honey dew is also 
one of the many mysteries that man is 
not yet fally acquainted with. But 
when we look back to days that liave 
passed and gone, we can fully recollect 
that honey dews alvrays come when the 
weather is warm and pleasant, and tlie 
trees and shrubs all dressed in living 
green; likewise, the flowers arc out in 
f LiU bloom, and tliat we behold all na- 
ture smiling in her beauty. Then it is 
tliat we see, of a beautiful, bright morn- 
ing, the leaves of many and various 
kinds of bushes fairly glistening with 
that s^Yeet nectar called honey dew. 
Hence, I believe it to be secreted in tlu^ 
many and various flowers through the 
night, and, by the chemical action of the 
sun of those warm days, it is taken up 
into the atmosphere in a condensed 
form, and then returns to the earth in a 
liquid, lodging upon the shrubs and 
trees in the night time, and is one of the 



rieliest hai've&ts for on? bees. In oilier 
worcb, it is the rich odor of flowers and 
plants thrown oif in the day time that is 
thus returned in the sweet-like sub- 
I'Stanoe sometimes so bountifuttv be-stow^ed 
for the good of man. It also feeds many 
thousands of insects, and supports many 
oolonies of bees. }>ut^ as is often said, 
many who -j^rofess that there is an in- 
ject, called aphisj jiroducing honey 
dews, as we commonly understand the 
term, I do not believe; yet I am well 
aware that there are such insects, and 
Tree and bud lice, that suck the juice 
of the tender leaves and buds of various 
shrubs, and will exude a substance simi- 
lar to honey dews; l)ut surely we could 
not be so foolish as to ])elieve it to be 
honey dew of the regular 0]-de.r, 

A Visit to the North American 
Bee-keepers Convention in 1871. 

It has been my ])rr»vince to examine 
several works on this drone question as 
to purity^ and. 1 claim that it is a fixed 
fact in nature that the drone is eflPeeted 
in its purity^ as vv^ell as the w^orkers of 



101 

all queens tliat may become fertilized hy 
"black drones, • is certainly reasonable, 
and wliy Mr. Kretchmer^ Avho lias pub- 
lished two ditterent books on bee-keep- 
ings siiuuld .say that all drones from an 
Italian queen "which lias been fertilized 
by a black drone are pure is certainly a 
stretch in a direction tiiat takes nature's 
Jaws down^ as well as natural science. 
[See last edition^ i)age 125.] And 
i^gain^ wJien he, in the same book^ page 
126, states that the drones vary in color 
more than queens or w^jrkers^ I sup- 
pose he has dii'ect reference to tlie Ital- 
ian drones; if so, 1 do not wonder at 
such discrepancies,, and must say to y©ir, 
friend Ivretchmer, I do not wish ti> 
.make any ])urchases of your so-called 
Italian pure stock. I feel that all such 
theories sliould and will be put down 
as the people become more enlightened 
on the subject; and while I think of it, 
let me say that in 1871, wliiie I at- 
tended the North American Bee-keep- 
ers^ Convention at Cleveland, Ohio, it 
^afforded me much. ]deasure to hear the 
different views of many who professed to 
be well posted on the drone question^ 



102 

one of whom was a doctor Bowyer^ of 
Alexandria^ Indiana^ and who had the 
starch all taken out of him by that old 
and venerable sage, doctor and profes- 
Hor^ (Airtland; a man for whom I enter- 
tain tlie highest respect, and give great 
credit to his views, who boldly asserted 
before the entire convention that it Avas 
certain tliat a pure blood was tainted by 
cohabiting Avith another or mixed race, 
and that it AVonld hold good in the in- 
sect as well as the animal or human 
creation^ and I beiie\'e especially so 
Avhere the female is of ])ure blood of a 
different class, ]^o^v, it is admitted by 
ail that the Italian hea is of a different 
class and of a superior race to that of 
the black bee of this country, and Avhen 
the two races are brought together and 
bred as above spoken of, it Avillefiect 
the entire family, and continue to do so 
as long as that mother queen raises bees 
or drones that fertilize your young 
queens. I would, therefore, advise you, 
dear reader, to be careful in making 
your purchases. If you desire to get pure 
stock and keep them so, you Avill first 
have to get that which is pure^ and theii 



10' 



breed as directed -mid laid down in this 
book^ and succetrs will crown your ef- 
forts. [See lesson Page 61. How to 
Eaise Italian drones.] 

I can not refrain from giving friend 
Quinby a passing notice^ who claims to 
have raised virgin queens late in the fall 
for the purpose of having early drones 
the next spring. [See his second edi- 
tion, page 37.] I do not miss my guess 
very much Avhen I say to him, that so 
lar as such drones are concerned, they 
are wholly worthless, and never were 
known to fertilize a queen at any time 
of the year, and I doubt his or any one 
else ever wintering such a stock over. 

[See pages 28, 29 and 30, this Book,] 



INDEX. 



PAGE. 

TlieKalural History and Description of the Honey Bee, i 
Drones are Larger than the Worker Bees— More About 

the Worker Bee ~ ^ 

Size and Shape of yueens ..^. -5 

Age oi Queens Is ot Certain— A Te»t of Qvxeeus Laying 

Eggs „ ^ 

Do Queens Stini,' * 

Construction of .Royal Cells ^ 

Impregnation of theQueen 10 

Artificial Fertilization in Coiitinement '...... H 

How a Fertile Queen is Known = , 1- 

How a Virgin Queen or Drone-Laying Queen is 

Known — An Instance of Two Queens in One Hive 13 

The Impregnating or Seminal Fluid 34 

On Swarming, and Whv Bees Swavra — First Swarm 16 

TheOId Queen Going with- Them ; 18 

When the First 8warm is Cast— The P'ping of the 

Queens l^ 

Queens Do Of ton Meet in Mortal Combat.,. ..»• 21 

What a Queen Cell LooksLike 2^' 

What A Eoyal Queen Cell is Made of 2,'i 

Bo Bees Superctde Their Queens 2fi 

Further Explanation of Sex 28 

On Transferring Bees and Brood into Movable Frame 

Hires • ; ?l 

Why is it that Bees of the Present Day do not bwarm so • 

Much nor Make as Much Honey as They Did Years 

Ago, During the Early Settlement of the Country ?-?. 

Do Queens Have a Sting? A]id if so, Do They Ever Use 

Them, and What On? , 37 

More Persons than do Should Keep Bees 39 

Artificially Swarming Bees,.....,,,...,.,,,.,.. ,,.,.... 42 

A Fertile' Worke^'— jSow 3S3iown,...„„„.,,„.„,„,uti,,..,., 44 



lio-w trtGeL r.ia of the Forlile Wovlcpr— On i he Drone 

Qnestiou, and What the Drone i:^ For 4C, 

OpinioH of Ocneral .Atlair Dnnbted,,.^^, .."....".*.'". -l.S 

Driring- Ec'cs imo Nrw Jlivcw ...............'.,.,, -il' 

How to Locave l!>oc^ AUvv I h'[\ in ■^. ',,[['. ......,......','. 50 

How to Hive Btx-.s ami Se\\Ui Thom AVlicu AUoM'cdito 

^ Swann 51 

Oil Patent or >[oval)Io J-'ramc ijivi's .'*...' 52 

Competition 01" the IHek.s lioe-llive fi.j 

1 rauds Should he Put Down— The Hicks Eee-Hive is 

One of the Kasiei5t Hives to Handle Bees in 50 

A'exed Question About Drones Explained 58 

How Bees are Oi'ton Lost, and Oause Explained 59 

How to Baiso Italian Drones Early - til 

Introduction of Italian Queens — The Proper Manner of 

Introducing a Queen loa Full Colony of Bees C2 

How to Raise or Breed Queens .' 61^ 

How to Prevent Bees from Destroying Their Young, 

and the Cause ." Gt 

Foul Brood— Cause of 65 

Foul Brood— How Known Gt; 

Dysentery, or Bee Cholera 67 

Treatmeiit of Bee Cholera , GS 

The Italian Bees, and I'heir Superiority Over tl>3 Com- 
mon Native Bee " C9 

IIow to Italianize a Hundred Stands -with One Queen, 

and Leave Her in the Same Hive 71 

What is Pollen, and Wliy Bees Use it for Food. 72 

HoAV to Feed Weak Slocks in Order to Save Them 71 

Old Fogies 2Mu^t Succumb 75 

Advice to Beginners in Aideulture 7G 

Each 31 onlh's Labors Laid Out fur the Apiary 7l> 

<Ju Choosing a Location f-jr an Apiary — Husv to Build a 

Bee-house : 82 

Pasturage for Bees „ _ 84 

Bee Stings, and Pvemedies for the Same— Another Sim- 
ple and Sure Eemedy „.. 85 

The Profits of Eee-Kceping Coroparcd with that of 

Other Stock P6 

A Mystery Much Doubted by Other Anthors 80 

Inverted Brood, and AVhat is the Eesult.... 01 

Who ^fay Keep Bees and Make Them Pay 02 

How to Winter Bees Successfully 95 

ITow to Keep Honey from Souring 96 

To Keep Honey from Granulaiing— To Make Tafley 

for the Children 97 

What is Honey Dew, and How is It Produced 98 

A Visit to the' North Araeric-an Bee-Keepers' Conven- 
tion in 1871 ,....,.».„ l*^"^ 



ERRATA. 



The first v/ord in the last line of introductory remarks 
should read "laws," in place of "was." 

The first word in last line on page 43 should read 
"some," and not "same" Also, on page 5], in le^ison 
"How to Hive Bees," the word "nearly," in the seventh 
line, should read "nearby," On page '53, third line from 
bottom, the first word should read "eight," in place of 
"right." Also, the letter "o" in last word in twenty- first 
line from top of page should be "c," and read as "nice," 
On pages 54 and 55, the word "Completion" should read 
"Competition of the Hicks Bee-hive," and nof'Comple- 
liyn Hicks Hive." On page 62, fifteenth line, the word 
"for" should read 'ffrom; and on page 64 the word "in" 
should be "of," in fifth line from bottom, after "month." 
Also, the last word on page 66 should be "bicarbonate," 
in place of "biporate." On page 69, the second line 
shouln have the words "back on their stand" supplied, in 
order to make the lesson clear and comprehensive in the 
treatment of bee cholera. On page 70, th6 word "native," 
in twelfth line from top, should read' "nature," and on 
page 71 we find in third line from bottom the word 
"bees," which should be "qneens;". "stocks," in second 
line irom bottom, should be "stacks. Also, on page 72, 
line 14, the word "ia" should be used after "inserting," to 
make sense. On page 77, line sixteen, just before "busi- 
ness" should be "this business." On page 79, in lesson for 
April, the word "have" should be used before "feed," to 
make proper sense; and "meal" should be used in place of 
"bread." On pege 80, the word "hive," in December les- 
son, should be "house," which is used in second and sixth 



HIV^ES, BEES 

At Retail and by the ftuantity. 



SINGLE COPY OF THE 

North American Bee-keeper's Guide. $ 50 

Hioks' Bee Hive and Farm Eight 10 00 

Hicks' Bee Hive, with Italian Bees 20 00 

For Hicks' Hives per dozen , 36 00 

Italian Queen, single one tested 5 00 

Italian Queens per dozen 33 OQ 

Italian Queens per half dozen , 18 00 

One imported Italian Queen , 10 00 

4l8ike Clover Seed per pound 60 

Mustard Seed per pound , 35 

Siiver-hulled Buckwheat per pound 05 

Honey Extractors furnished at manufacturers' prices, the 
Ijest in the market. • 

Address: 

J. M. HICKS & CO., 

Battle Ground, 
nppecanoe County, Ind. 

N. B.— -Aliraja b« particular to write jour name and 
•ddroM ptittalf , to Moid mistakes. 



S^^l desire to procure good ener- 
getic Agents tiiroiighout the United 
States and Territories^ to whom liberal 
commissions will be allowed, as ^ngj^l as 
good premiums in Bees, Italian Queens, 
and Hicks Hived, including the i\or^/) 
American Bee- Keepers' Guide, a book up 
with the times in Bee-keeping, which 
retails at fifty cents per single copy, and 
i^ worth ten times the price to any 
farmer or person contemplating going 
into the Bee business. 

Address, wath inclosed stamp for 
terms, and you will always hear from 
me. • /. M. HICKS. 



I abo wish to negotiate and make ar- 
rangements for all first-class honey, for 
which I will pay cash or exchange Ital- 
ian Queens, or Hicks Bee Hives, with 
or without bees in the same. In a 
word, I will exchange any article I keep 
for sale to supply Bee-keepers with for 
good, first-class honey, at fair prices. 
J. M, HICK8, 
Battle Ground, 
Tippecanoe County, Ind. 



WILL FURNISH 

TRIMIIIlf&S AID HAMAEl 

— FOR— 

Hicks' Bee Hives, 

— ALSO— 

A Full Set of Transferring Tools. 

FDR A(4EXTS, FUKNI<HED OX SHORT NOTICE, 
W'c are ;tlsi) prei)arcd to furnish the best 

^ o 21 ^; y-^'M s^- 1 r ^ o % © {i* m^ 

AT ^LVNUFaCTURERS' PRICES. 

Kiiiyes for Uncapping Honey, 

Wili also 1)e furnislied on Sliort Notice and at [>iw Pi'lc 
A'l'.lvesf? all orders to 

J. M. HICKS & CO., 

Battle Ground, 
Tippecanoe County, Ind. 



iltig'Tbc Best asd rarest Slock of Brama Chickens 'fu; - 
iiished on reasonable terms for cash. It is a ^vell-knowi! 
fact, that the two faniili?? of Brainas — that of dark and 
light — if bred together, make the most hardj' and best 
chicken.s for the market, and by lav the richest, .sweetest 
and best meat for use. 

Addros- all orders to J. M. HICKS «t CO.. 

Baltle Oronncf, Ind. 



/#W/C^^j/^^=^. ^^^# 



Price 50c., Postpaid. M 



THE 



NORTH AMERICAN 




.1 



yMMiMWaKMal 



■^^W^ 



GUIDE, 



B Y J. M. HICKS, 

I»ractloal J^piarlan, 

Battle Ground, Tippecanoe Co., Incl. 



LAFAYETTE 
BEE STEAM PRINTING HOUSE, 

'^- J. L. COX & BEO., PEINTERS -^ 
1875. 






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